Elegance of a Queen
by Just-Visiting12
Summary: There has always been something different about Alicante Highschool, and Clarissa Morgenstern was the biggest mystery of all. Oblivious to the love surrounding her, Clary's got some dark secrets of her own that the 3 newbies are dying to uncover. But there's always a reason why no one talks about Alicante; after all, no one likes a lost cause. *WARNING SOME TRIGGERING THEMES*
1. Chapter 1

**Hiya guys, this is my first story for Mortal Instruments and I just need some feedback on if it is good enough to keep uploading for you. I've worked on this for a while now and kind of** **consider it my baby, but obviously if it is awful then..well hopefully it isn't! Anyways, enough rambling I hope you like the first chapter, REVIEW and let me know your thoughts please!**

 ***Disclaimer: Clearly I have no rights to these characters, as much as I wish I did, thats all Cassandra Clare***

Alicante High School was never your average American School you see on those addictive television shows you have no idea why you watch. Yes, Alicante High had an amazing football team that gets to State every year, and along with it comes the cheerleaders that bring back trophies from Nationals annually. But in this high school there isn't a queen bee who is head cheerleader that inevitably falls in love with the captain of the football team; actually if that happened at Alicante it would be quite disgusting since they are siblings, -unless you're into incest.

But yes, the Morgenstern twins do in fact rule the school, kind of.

Jonathan isn't your average jock, oh definitely not. He may be extremely good looking, and have a body from the Gods, but no one seems to care about that. He's the calm sibling, the one who gets straight A's and is friends with everyone. He keeps Clarissa grounded, even when she doesn't want to be.

Now, Clarissa is also the perfect student. Top of her class, apart from her ridiculously smart brother, head cheerleader, head girl and people seem to look at her as some sort of leader.

Clarissa is seen to be the most..difficult out of the siblings, and by difficult I mean she can be a total bitch when she wants. Not that she intends to be one, but sometimes her stubbornness can be misleading. Like last Spring when she yelled at one of the jocks for tripping a glittery gay boy. I mean yeah that is kind of bitchy but didn't he deserve it? Clarissa thought he deserved a whole lot more, and he would have seen her fist if it wasn't for her brother pulling her away.

Back to who 'rules' the school. I guess you could say that Clarissa and Jonathan do, but not alone. Their, or rather her, best friend Simon Lewis also reigns next to them. Unexpected as it is, yes dorky and scrawny, head of the 'band' geeks, Simon Lewis is one of the 'populars' in school! He was kind of placed there by luck, but who is going to question Clarissa when she pulls you off to sit next to her at lunch? Not Simon Lewis that's for sure. And so he ended up part of her little pack after he stood up to a boy twice his size when he had gripped a girl up against her locker. Admittedly, Clarissa was going to intervene before Simon did, and as she watched she thought that Simon's -then bloody nose- deserved to be given a chance. So after she had ripped the giant asshat off of Simon, she yelled at him for being so stupid and then dragged him off to lunch with her. And he's been there ever since.

Back then, the twins had only just started the school, and things were ran a little differently than they are now. Such as, the jocks were dumb imbeciles who thought only about how hot the cheerleaders looked in their short little skirts. Everyone pretended to like the slut of a 'queen bee' to get a decent reputation on their social ladder, literally-the queen herself typed it up. I mean, come on?! Who has that amount of time, or importantly who cares that much?! Certainly not Clarissa Morgenstern. And that's how the school changed. There was now no separation, no social ladder, no mad chess champion that was afraid to ask out a cheerleader, no jock was above sitting by a bank geek, and so Clarissa's perfect little school was brought to life. And that is how it would stay if Clarissa Morgenstern had anything to do with it. That is until a trio of siblings came marching into the school and everything came crashing down.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

"CLARISSA ADELE Morgenstern IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS GOD DAMMED DOOR RIGHT THIS IN-"

"Hey Dad, What's up?"

"What's up? WHAT'S UP?! I don't know Clary, what IS up? Maybe the fact that my DAUGHTER has just sneaked back through her window at SIX in the morning from GOD-KNOWS-WHERE! IS THAT UP?!"

This is how Clarissa Morgenstern, or better known Clary, started her oh so wonderful day. If we were to freeze time at exactly 6:02 Tuesday morning, you would see a furious beast breathing fire all over a harmless little puppy in the lovely town of Brooklyn.

Ok, so maybe Valentine Morgenstern isn't a beast, but he was furious. And he sure resembles something beastly with his pale blonde, almost white hair, sticking up in odd directions from where he has run his hands through it. His face looks as though it is about to burst by how red it is, and is it me or is there steam escaping from his ears? But his face would not be half as terrifying if he did not have his dark angry eyes piercing imaginary holes through his daughters face. His tall frame almost filled the narrow doorway to her room, making him seem even more giant that his 6'2 build. He usually towers over Clary anyway, but right now he looks as if he could squash her with his pinky finger.

Although, Clarrisa isn't a harmless little puppy as she may sometimes claim to be, she can be just as scary as her father when she gets mad. Her frame may only reach 5 foot exactly, and her eyes may not be dark and dangerous but instead a bursting emerald colour, but when she's angry, the fire inside her matches her flaming locks of long curly hair. Clary's face of freckles may come across as childlike and so she often gets labelled as 'cute' , which frustrates her incredibly, but her strength and power can persuade anyone to do just about anything -or she hypnotises people as Jonathan claims.

But even though Clary and Valentine are not animals, he was still growling at her, while she blankly looked at his seething face. You see, Clary was in fact out all night, but for a very good reason, well she thought it was anyway. She was actually in the club Pandemonium, with Maia. Normally she wouldn't go out anywhere, especially to a club in the dark, without her brother, or at least Simon -not that he could do much more than her to protect them. But last night it was an emergency. Maia and Clary were out for revenge.

Revenge? Kind of childish isn't it? Not for the pair of girls who swore payback on Maia's cheating douchebag of an ex-boyfriend. This revenge could not possibly wait until tomorrow at school, it was spur of the moment, and included: alcohol, short dresses, more alcohol, sexy dancing, and a dougebag who left the club with a dripping wet shirt and no dignity. Let's just say that Maia knows that she's worth more than that asshat who had the nerve to lie to her face when she saw him sucking another girls face off. Clary and Maia thought their plan was a job well done when all the other girls in the club saw how much of a sleeze he was, and so they celebrated with a few victory drinks. Clary is sort of regretting them right now as she's having a bit of trouble focussing on her dads screaming rather than the rising urge to puke on his fluffy slippers that she bought him for Christmas last year.

After zoning out of her fathers lecture for the last five minutes, she thought it was best to at least attempt to listen to his 'wise words'.

"-ON A SCHOOL NIGHT NO LESS! YOU COULD DESTROY YOUR FUTURE, YOU NEED TO BE MORE RESPONSIBLE, MORE LIKE JONATHAN! I BET HE IS SLEEPING SOUNDLESSLY IN HIS ROOM LIKE HE SHOULD BE AND NOT GALAVANTING ALL NIGHT LONG!"

He paused and saw the reaction of his daughter. The guilt was clear on her face but there was also a hint of anger and betrayal, as if he didn't trust her to have a good reason to disobey him. He softened his expression and whispered his next words with only affection and worry.

"It's just that anything could happen to you Clary. I don't want anything to happen to you. I've been up all night worrying. You're my baby girl, I wouldn't know what I would do with myself without you."

As he said this he opened his arms for a hug, and she gladly relaxed into him. Feeling a safety only her father could bring her. She mumbled a sincere apology against his chest, and promised that she only left because she had to bring justice to the world, which apparently needed to be done straight away. He reluctantly let her go as he knew how much she believed in people getting what they deserve, and how she felt that it was her duty to balance out the good acts and the bad acts of the world, well at least in Alicante High.

Valentine told her she should at least get one hour of sleep as there was no way she was missing school for her own mistake. After nodding and giving him a quick peck on the cheek they parted ways. She bowed her head and dragged her self over to her bed, collapsing into her duvet without even bothering to change out of her short little dress, and a boys jacket that had somehow randomly appeared on her at some point in the night. She instantly fell asleep and dreaded the seven hours of school she usually couldn't wait to get to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hiya guys, I just wanted to say thank you so so much for your reviews and support through following this story! It got me so excited I'm posting the second chapter already! Just to warn you, this story is kind of slow, it is kind of a journey rather than sprints but I promise you that you will fall in love with the characters just as much as I have (well I hope you do anyway). Anyways, enjoy the chapter, just bare with me until some more.. _interesting_ things happen, enjoy and don't forget to review please, your feedback means the world! **

***Disclaimer; I still do not own these lush characters, that's all Cassandra Clare***

All too soon Clary felt a huge weight jumping on her, ordering her to get her butt out of bed before he pulls her out.

Jonathan.

Usually Clary loves Jonathan's enthusiasm in the morning, but right now she wanted to rip that stupid grin off his face and strangle him with it. She grumbled a cranky "get lost" before deliberately throwing him off the bed and curling back under her blanket and closing her eyes.

"Clary.."

"Wakey wakey."

"Rise and shine!"

Jonathan's efforts were useless until he screamed at the top of his lungs;

"NO MOM, CLARY DOESN'T WANT PANCAKES!"

Clary springs up out of bed and pushes past her twin with a hand to his face trying to scramble down the stairs as fast as she can. No way is she missing out on her most beloved food. Did I mention Jocelyn makes THE perfect pancakes?

Jonathan walks into the kitchen to the picture of Clary wolfing down about six pancakes while moaning and mumbling to their mother who is looking at her only daughter with a mix of confusion, from not understanding what is coming out of her mouth -apart from flying bits of pancake- and worry, because of the possibility of Clary choking from how fast she is inhaling her breakfast.

Clary is the exact replica of her mother, well she will be once she gains a bit of elegance, but all will come in good time..hopefully. However, where Clary gains almost all her traits from her mother, Jonathan is the spitting image of their father, even as far as their striking pale hair. The only difference between father and son is Valentine's dark and powerful eyes compared to Jonathan's green ones, identical to his mother and sister.

Jonathan grabs a bar stool to sit next to Clary just as his father walks into the room. On seeing her father Clary freezes with one hand still holding a forkful of pancake halfway through the journey to her mouth.

"Just because you are frozen doesn't mean I can't see you Clary", Valentine deadpans. He continues to walk over to Jocelyn and kisses her good morning while she stacks a plate of pancakes for herself and husband. Clary resumes eating her pancakes in slow motion in an attempt that her father would not focus on her.

"Yes I can still see you, even if your acting skills are extremely applaudable." And just like that, their father-daughter relationship is back to normal.

"What can I say? I am a natural born actress," Clary replies with a grin and a hair flick. "To bad I could never make it to the movies, the world could not handle someone as talentedly gifted as me on TV". She continues her scene by dramatically placing her hand on her forehead and 'fainting' off the chair. Jon soon joins in by catching her and spinning her around in his arms and announcing in a deep voice:

"Never fear Clariella", Jon always used to call her that when they were little when she made them watch Cinderella constantly for two months. It still made her giggle when he says it now. "I will keep the world safe by keeping you away from that terrifying big screen." And with that he pranced dramatically up the stairs, dumps her none too gently in her room and then runs away laughing manically like a villain.

Giddy with her childish morning she looked over at her clock and-

"Shit!"

7:25, school starts in 35 minutes and she hasn't even showered. Clary sprints to the bathroom grabbing her uniform as she passes. Yep, Alicante is one of THOSE schools that steal away your uniqueness and ability to be yourself in school. But it's not that bad, quite nice actually if Clary does say so herself -which she would considering it was her doing that the school changed their hideous colours to a more appealing and elegant navy and white for the girls, although a checked skirt is included in their options, and a pink and navy tie with light brown trousers for the boys. If you asked Clary if she had gotten her inspiration from the show Gossip Girl she would tell you no and then probably to get lost. And she would also be lying.

Jon and Clary arrive at school with ten minutes spare, and anyone who doubted their punctuality should feel like fools. They glide into the school, across the carpark while Jon waves and chats to everyone he sees on his way, whereas Clary just smiles and nods to a selected few. Everyone always stares at the twins, and Simon when he is with them, but they are always so oblivious to all the stares. And today is just like any other day, and they especially do not notice the stares of a new trio of siblings.

The twins flounce through the hallways to their homeroom, stopping at their neighbouring lockers to grab their books. They walk into the room and sit at the same desks they've sat in for two and a half years already, and will continue to sit in for the rest of their final year of high school. Did I mention, SENIOR YEAR.

Maia excitedly bounds up to them and whispers to Clary about last night, and they both giggle and reenact Maia's ex's face when he saw his favourite jersey drenched in yellow alcohol. Who wears a jersey to a club anyway? Douches, that's who. They even give each other knowing winks when the douche himself shuffles into the room, avoiding eye contact with both the grinning girls. Not long later homeroom ends, and the school day proceeds robotically, the same as usual until fourth period when lunch comes around.

Lunch is typically where individual cliques claim a table for themselves and then that's how it stays for the rest of the year, with no interacting from other 'cliques'. Well that's not how Miss Clarissa Morgenstern intended it to be, and so last year she gathered a couple of the strongest looking people -yes people, have you seen the girl's wrestling team? They could snap her like a twig!- and made them push all the long lunch tables together so they created one long snake shape with a top table that runs the side of the 'snake', so they could all be as close as possible.

Now Clary, Jon and Simon don't actually claim seats of their own. It is just a coincidence that no one sits on the top table, in the middle seats. And it's a coincidence that they have sat there since the arrangement began. It's sort of a routine for Clary now to just always sit there, whilst passing everyone pausing to chat to some girls or mess around with some of the boys, and then eventually grab her lunch out of her bag which Jonathan made this morning for them both.

Everything was normal, Simon and Clary were talking about Jordan Kyle's party on Friday after the football game, when the doors opened and everyone immediately went silent.

Three gorgeous people stood there. And the whole lunch room turned to look right at Clary.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hiya guys, back again with chapter three, thanks so much for all the support with favourites and follows, it is honestly so amazing! This chapter is a little short but writing it back in the time I did I obviously felt that it was a good stopping point..maybe. Please please please review and tell me your thoughts on the story/my writing/how your day is! Anyways, hope you like the chapter!**

 ***Disclaimer; I don't own any of these characters xo**

1,012 pairs of eyes stared at Clary. 2,024 eye balls looking at her. Not including the three beautiful strangers in HER school. But Clary knows better than to trust a pretty face. Her and Maia learnt that lesson. While Clary's head is still trying to process why EVERYONE is looking at just HER, she's trying to calm her mind and take deep breaths without letting anyone know she's on the verge of an anxiety attack. Jonathan to the rescue again stands and immediately takes the attention off his sister, but still discretely grabs her hand to give her comfort as she calms down.

"What's your names, newbies?" Jonathan's voice echoes around the hall and seems more menacing than how he intended it to be. He's pointedly looking at all three. Two look quite similar, and show an uncanny resemblance to each other, not at all like he has with Clary. They both had shiny black hair, but where the girl has hers dead straight and flowing, the boys is ruffled and flopped into sorted side bangs. The siblings have the same shaped faces, and the same olive coloured skin with a hint of sun. Although, compared to the siblings, the last boy of the trio is the complete opposite. Whereas they are night, he is day, just like the moon and the sun. Jonathan offers a smile in which they all return except that smile turned into a cocky smirk from the golden boy.

"I didn't know we interrupted, a special occasion? You do all know this is school, right? You're supposed to hate it?" As he was speaking he was gazing around the snake of lunch tables while making his way over to Jonathan. "Names Jace by the way, that's Isabelle and Alec, we just moved here from Maine."

By this point Jace had made it all the way over to their table and had his hand out to Jonathan to shake. They shook and never lost eye contact, as if figuring each other out. This gave Clary a good opportunity to study the boy. A golden boy. Literally. His golden hair was obviously natural, the way it just falls exactly where it is supposed to. His golden skin looks like he's just come from the beach, as if he absorbed the sun into his muscly 6 foot body. He even had golden eyes for crying out loud! Although, they didn't look like they were radiant like the sun, Clary observed. They were bright gold but they held a sort of darkness and pain, nothing like Clary had seen before. She furrowed her eyebrows crossly and cursed him as she watched one of his eyebrows raise onto his forehead directly at her. Whereas many other girls would have blushed and quickly turned away at being caught, Clary simply smiled a small smile and turned to look at her brother.

Jonathan was still stumped on how to take this new boy as he continued to watch him without muttering a word until he belted with all seriousness, "WELCOME TO ALICANTE HIGH NEWBIES!" And then quieter so only the three newcomers and a few students nearby could hear, he murmured, "Let's see what you're made of." At this the trio grew wide eyed and glanced back and forth between each other. Before they had chance to do anything though Jonathan yelled, "FOOD FIGHT!"

A food fight was a ritual for new comers in order to see if they are worthy to fit into their Alicante family. Usually a food fight distinguishes the 'I'm-too-sophisticated-for-this-school' people that they really don't want and the 'hell-yeah-a-food-fight?-give-me-some-spaghetti' people. They definitely prefer the latter.

Although Clary was a little annoyed that she didn't know about the newcomers and so therefore would now probably get her favourite uniform -her pinafore- ruined, she gladly grabbed a handful of Simon's tuna pasta and slam it right into Isabelle's chest. Isabelle's perfectly plucked eyebrows rose so far up her forehead in surprised they almost disappeared behind her hairline and her mouth opened into a round 'O' shape.

"You little bitch!" Isabelle screeched in Clary's face while Jace and Alec just looked on in horror as they knew that it had taken Izzy three whole hours to perfect her 'new school look'.

"Oops.." Clary poured as much sarcasm as she could in that one word and then turned to Jon and said, "Never mind Jonny boy, I guess they really don't have what it takes to be one of us". And then she sat back down in her chair, resumed eating her sandwich that was rudely interrupted, and waited for the inevitable to happen.

As we know, Clary is a big believer in karma and everyone getting what they deserve, so Clary would not have thrown that handful of pasta is she wasn't one hundred percent sure that Isabelle would throw something back at her. That would mean the playing field is even. She did believe Isabelle, and her brothers, we're like them, but she saw her hesitate and decided to give her a push in the right direction. By shoving pasta in her beautifully white shirt.

No sooner than 40 seconds later, Clary had a slice of pizza stuck to the chest of her pinafore. She scraped her chair back from her and slowly stood up as the whole room went quiet. Casually looking down at the triangle mess on her chest she sighed as if she was going to miss the ruined clothing -which she was. All of a sudden her sad expression turned into the biggest grin Isabelle had ever seen as she looked at the other girl.

"Nice throw" Clary praised her with a wink, and then made a grand gesture with her arms and announced, "Isabelle of Maine, welcome to Alicante High, we are your family now". She then fell into a fit of giggles which almost all of the lunch room found adorable and proceeded to chuckle along beside her.

"Enough with the dramatics sis, you'll scare her back to Maine, and she won't even get a chance to try to discover our secrets." Jon spoke mischievously.

"Jon! That was just as dramatic as what I said!" Clary giggled again, and elbowed her twin who gave her a knowing smile. They both nodded at the exact same time, gave each other a huge grin that should have broke both of their faces and then simultaneously said in the worst Scarface impression in the world, "SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!" Then they both threw a fistful of mashed potato at Alec and Jace and scurried out of the cafeteria laughing like maniacs the entire way, leaving the boys to stand with mashed potato beards wondering where the hell they got mashed potato from.

The room was quiet, and quite startled on how this event went. Half of the students still had a handful of mushy food squelching in their palms as they were anticipating a food fight. Still, no one moved until a red faced redhead popped her head around the door and muttered "Go ahead..LET THE FOOD FIGHT BEGIN".

And all hell broke lose as pizza, pasta, lettuce, ice cream, and even a few shoes were flung through the cafeteria. Jace just watched the confusing little redhead escape the destiny of ruined hair, well until he got assaulted by a cheeseburger that is. Then the fight began.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hiya guys, thank you so so much for all your support, your kind reviews and many favourites/follows! It's honestly amazing, so this chapter is a little longer, and you kind of see into Clary a little more. Hope you enjoy, any** **feedback is so appreciated!**

 ***Disclaimer; Cassandra Clare still owns all these amazing characters, not me.**

Jace thought the food fight was actually quite fun in the end. He thought the sound of his cream pie slam dunk to the head of Simon, who he nicknamed rat-boy as he was yet to find out his name, was definitely worth Maryse shouting at him for the state of his uniform when he gets home. It was the most fun he had had in ages and it took his mind off things he would rather not be thinking about. He changed into the spare clothes he brought, just as the principle had advised. Obviously he must have known what the tradition for new students are, and at least he told them to bring some extra clothes, he did not want to be walking around with chicken tikka sauce smothered across his front from multiply attacks by the entire band geeks. Although, Jace did get the worst of it. As soon as Isabelle heard the words 'food fight' from Clary's petite little lips she practically sprinted towards safety behind the twins table, where weirdly Simon protected her from most of the damage. Alec however did gain several blows full of food, but most were from the glittery gay boy that Clary stuck up for all those years ago, Magnus Bane. And every time he threw a small amount of food he would wink at Alec, causing him to turn away blushing, forgetting to actually get Magnus back for throwing food at him.

After the food fight, everyone sort of disappeared into classes not caring that they had food smudged on them. The new trio headed towards the showers in Gym to get cleaned up, and decided to miss the rest of lessons and start fresh tomorrow, when hopefully they would be welcomed.

"At least I will be alright, you two will have to fend for yourself". Isabelle told the boys as she danced away from them into the girls locker room.

"And how is that Izzy? You pissed their leader off, or one of them, I don't really understand this school yet but I'm pretty sure throwing pizza at the person they were all in awe of isn't going to play off well." Jace smirked and crossed his arms waiting for his sisters oh so clever response. She's as much of an outcast in this school as he is. Well that's what he thought until she muttered something that made his mouth actually flop open like a fish.

"Oh, well she's invited me to sit by her for lunch tomorrow. I think that says something don't you, Jace?" With a twinkle in her eye, she rounds the corner to the girls locker room leaving her brothers wondering how the hell they were going to survive this school.

After Clary and Jon escaped the food fight they raced each other to their favourite place in the school. The top of the bleachers. They were sitting across from each other cross legged eating ice cream that Jonathan had subtly stolen when Clary distracted everyone with her 'food fight begin' speech. They come up here quite often, it's where they both feel confident and free. They can see everything but yet only the two of them matter. They could safely talk about anything and be sure no one could hear, and so they were currently discussing the newbies and how much they could trust them.

"I don't know Jon, there is something odd about them, especially that blonde one. I saw it in his eyes, they had a darkness in them, no darkness we need to be part of."

"Really Clary? His eyes? Maybe he's got contacts? Or he was probably a bit frightened of the weird ginger girl checking him out" Jon laughed as Clary shoved him so hard he almost fell off the bench.

She grumbled, "Not funny!"

"That's payback for calling me Jonny boy..and in front of the whole school!" He glared daggers at her, who just waved him off with a simple shrug that meant they were even, and got back to the matter of these siblings.

"The two black haired ones are definitely brother and sister, no denying it, but that other one, now he is a mystery." Clary pondered on the idea and soon got lost in her mind, which is never a good thing, because sometimes she can't seem to get back to reality on her own. She begins to wonder if the blonde boy, Jace she remembers, is in fact related to the other two. Perhaps a cousin who lives with them? Maybe it was just a coincidence that all three of them started on the same day and they actually didn't know each other until this morning. But no, Clary knew there was something strange about the way the blonde boy put himself first, to test everything before the dark headed siblings did. He didn't do this out of vanity, although she didn't doubt he knew that he was indeed quite beautiful, but she saw he did this as a way to protect the others by giving himself up first, which shows that he does care very deeply for the other two of the trio. This leaves Clary in an even bigger puzzle than when she first started thinking about him. Her head begins to hurt and it's not until Jonathan is practically clicking in front of her face with his right hand, and shaking her shoulder with his left, whilst shouting her name making her wince when she finally comes back to planet earth.

"What the heck Jon?! Are you trying to make me deaf?..Oww.." Clary shook her ear with her own hand and flicked Jon in the head for good measure.

"OW CLARY! Was that needed? I was just helping you come back from the fairies and this is how I get repaid? Worst. Job. Ever."

"Shut up, my head still hurts a bit."

Jon's eyes softened and he whispered as not to give her an even bigger headache, "Are you ok? Did you remember to take your tablet this morning? I didn't see you get it."

This immediately snapped Clary's head up to her twin. How dare he accuse her of being so irresponsible! She makes one mistake, and now she's this fragile little girl who can't possibly remember to take one bloody pill. Her green eyes were not so identical to her brother's now, they had a coating of anger and Jon swore he saw a darkness spread across them.

"Of course I took the damn pill, what do you think I am? Stupid? A freak? Hm Jon? Is your sister not capable of remembering to do anything?" At this point she was standing on the bleachers bench, waves of anger were rolling off her. Jon knew he needed to calm her down otherwise she would blow and anyone caught in the middle would not get out lightly.

"Clary, you know that's not wha-"

"It was one time Jon! One mistake. Can't you just believe that I'm better now? I know I'm doing better. I know it." She whispered the end mostly to herself, sounding more sad than angry. The strength in her eyes had disappeared and left this vulnerable girl in its wake.

Before he could even move to comfort her, she was darting down the bleachers with a newfound energy, causing Jon to sprint after her as fast as he could as he knew this energy was her anger and who knows what she might do with it.

Clary's eyes were blazing. Her anger with Jon was pushing her forward. She needed to let off steam before anyone saw her like this. She made her way to her locker where she usually kept her spare gym kit. Except for today. She completely forgot to bring a clean kit in for the week while she was in a rush this morning! Luckily she kept her running shoes in there. Plus, Jon was bound to have some shorts and a t-shirt she can borrow in his permanent football locker. Once she got to her locker she opened it to see just what she had expected, no gym kit. She grabbed her shoes and slammed the locker door.

Not missing a stride, she marched into the boys locker room where all the football jocks had their own locker, as it was most convenient due to games and practise schedules. She flung Jon's locker combination in and almost ripped the door off its hinges. Pushing past Jonathan's disgusting pile of sweaty football gear she finally retrieved one of Jon's old grey Alicante High sweatshirts. It had Morgenstern printed on the back, like all the track team had last summer. She searched for a pair of decent sized shorts that would sort of fit her when she found a pair of small black running shorts. She must of left them in there one time, because there is no way Jonathan would wear something so short. She grabbed them and began to take her still pizza stained pinafore off, leaving her in her underwear as she scrambled to get the shorts on.

Meanwhile, Jace had been cleaning himself thoroughly, making sure his precious hair was properly cleaned and all the mashed potato and food junk was a hundred percent gone from his hair. Alec had left a while ago, preferring to just change and shower later at home, seeing that there wasn't long left until the end of the day. He really didn't understand why Jace was making such a big deal about spending the last two hours of school looking cleaner than everyone else, but not actually seeing anyone else. He confused Alec to no end, and so he told him he would meet him by the car at the last bell, because he was going to wander around the school.

Jace blatantly ignored Alec's attempts to make him explore with him and to just shower when they got home. Jace didn't quite know why he was making such a fuss about cleaning himself up. He guessed it was something to do instead of wandering around being bored. And even though he didn't particularly understand why he stayed that long in the locker room, he was definitely glad that he did.

After finishing in the shower, Jace heard a loud slam and the sound of angry muttering from around the corner. Having nothing better to do, Jace went to investigate. Turning the corner he did not expect to see a half naked redhead scowling down at herself as she jimmied shorts onto her now covered bottom half. She was about to cover herself up completely when Jace decided to speak up, causing her to jump as she didn't know anyone was here.

"I've never really had a girl cover up in front of me before, it's usually the opposite."

Clary carried on preparing herself to run, not feeling intimidated by Jace or his snarky comments, which infuriate him. She just didn't care. And so he tried to up his game. When she stood up to leave, all kitted and ready, he followed her. She realised what he was doing and abruptly stopped, almost causing Jace to run into her.

"What are you doing?" Her demanding voice surprised him, and he found new confidence.

"Just hanging out with you _Morgenstern._ " The way he said it angered her. As if he knew what he was saying, as if they were best friends, long term partners. Well they weren't. And Clary had had enough of playing his little game. So she began her own game.

"Morgenstern?" She blinked, feigning confusion. "Did you call me Morgenstern? But that's the name of my b- _oh_ , I get it." And then she started to hysterically laugh, holding her stomach for effect. Jace stood there feeling a little bit uncomfortable. Was she going to say boyfriend? He was so confident that was her name, she IS wearing the sweatshirt. But then again, Jace thought, it does look overly large on her petite frame. How could he have been so stupid? He tried to one up her and it failed..miserably.

She died down her laughter, and wiped a fake tear from her eye. She stared at Jace with pretend amusement in her eyes and said, "Morgenstern is my boyfriend, we've been together a few years now. I just found it funny that you thought MY name was Morgenstern. Well, who knows, maybe someday it will be." And with a devilish wink she proceeded to march down to the track where she could finally let her pretend happiness drop, and let all her frustration out. Her frustration at Jon for not believing in her, her frustration for herself for giving Jon a reason not to believe in her, her frustration with the world for being so shitty, and basically her frustration with everyone and everything.

She began laps of the track and tried to clear her mind of her thoughts. But soon enough she was on her 48th lap and it would take her a while to get out of her messed up little head this time. Clary began running robotically without even registering that she was running. She didn't notice when Jace stood and watched her for twenty laps before turning away, wondering what was wrong with the troubled redhead. He soon came back with Jon, who he assumed was her brother from their childish banter and identical green eyes. Once the words "Clary..track..running.." were heard by Jon, he was sprinting to his sister where she had been for who knows how long.

He saw her jogging, and she looked perfectly normal if it weren't for the far off look in her eyes and her muttering occasionally to herself about things that didn't quite fit together, except in her mind.

Jon saw the confusion in her eyes as she was jogging, and knew she didn't know that she had probably ran almost 100 laps. He walked over slowly, as not to scare her, and then when she passed him he began to keep pace with her jog, even though he was still in his uniform. At first he began to talk to her calmly, calling her name, and asking her questions that she didn't respond to. Using the only way he knows to get her to snap out of this, he folded his arms around both her shoulders and forced her to a stop. He squeezed her into him before relaxing and just holding her. After a short few minutes she hesitantly raised her arms back around him and fell into the familiar embrace of her twin. She repeatedly mumbled something he couldn't quite hear.

"What was that, Clare? I couldn't hear you."

"I'm getting better now. I know it. I am." She raised her head to look into her brother's eyes and saw them full of worry and concern. Once seeing thing she immediately pleaded. "No, no, no, you don't have to look at me like that Jon, I'm better. Really, I am. You believe me, don't you? Please, you have to. I am better. I am."

As she finished her mini speech she rested her head back on Jonathan's chest and closed her eyes. He kissed her head and held her tighter, hoping that she does get better. She needs to.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hiya guys, I'm not going to ramble on for ages this time. Thank you so much for all your support, it honestly amazes me! This chapter is a little longer for you so I hope you enjoy it! Review and tell me your thoughts/feelings, you'll see a lot of insight into different characters in this chapter, particularly Clary (of course), so..enjoy!**

 ***Disclaimer: I don't own Mortal Instruments***

The next day, Clary was back to her usual self and the only sign of yesterday's episode was Jon's worried glances at her every thirty seconds.

"Seriously Jon, keep your eyes on the road. If you don't stop looking at me you might smash your precious baby."

After another quick glance, he sighed. "Do you think you are going to find a new cheerleader AND have her learn a routine for Friday's game? It's going to be a bit of a challenge, especially what you make them do."

Clary frowned, remembering the reason why she doesn't have a full team, as of yesterday.

 _She was going back into school to grab her bag that she had left by Jon's locker when she heard something banging against the metal lockers. She tiptoed around the corner from Jon's locker, and when she saw the scene before her she dropped her bag and covered her eyes. Maureen Brown, one of her flyers, was making out with the new boy, Jace. He had her up against the lockers while her legs were wrapped securely around his waist. His hands on her bum and hers roughly pulling through his hair as they made noises that can only be described as animalistic._

 _Clary composed herself, and cleared her throat as they were both too oblivious to notice her. They both froze and then quickly sprung apart. Maureen stood there wide-eyed and her lip trembling waiting for Clary to yell at her. Jace however casually leaned against some random locker with a smirk plastered on his face. Clearly he didn't know the seriousness of his actions, Clary thought. Clary cast her eyes to her fellow cheerleader and raised both eyebrows, after failing multiple times at raising only one._

 _"Why Maureen? What is Sebastian going to say?" Clary spoke calmly and quietly and waited for the other girl to answer._

 _"I-I-uh I don't kn-n-now Clary", She was blubbering now, the kind that usually Clary would respond to with comfort and then a plan of revenge. But now she cast a look of sympathy so pathetic she even added an eye roll at the girls dramatics. If she didn't want bad things to happen to her then don't do bad things. Right? Clary didn't quite know what was so difficult about that concept._

 _"You don't know? You don't know why you locked lips with a newbie when it could destroy your entire relationship? Or do I need to remind you that you have a boyfriend? Of two years if I remember right." Clary spoke quietly, but firmly, making her seem even more ferocious._

 _"You have a boyfriend?!" Jace's outburst was ignored by both of the girls. But, Clary had acknowledged what he had said, and thought that maybe he wasn't entirely to blame for this deceitful act._

 _"Clary, you can't tell him! It will hurt him so much", Maureen sobbed, ignoring Jace and skirted towards Clary, pleading to her with her eyes. Clary knew Maureen was only this upset because she had been caught by Clary herself. Maureen knew all about Clary's 'balancing acts' and how far she could take them, and she definitely didn't want to be subjected to one of them._

 _"Me TELLING him will hurt him? I guess you should have thought about that before you cheated on him. You know what has to happen Maureen, you can't just get away with hurting anyone you want. He.." Clary pointed a finger at Jace, "didn't intentionally hurt anyone, but you..", Clary shoved her finger in Maureen's direction, her voice getting increasingly louder and angrier, "You knew what would happen if you betrayed Seb, and that's why I'm kicking you off the cheerleading squad."_

 _Clary knew how much the squad meant to Maureen, it helped her in more ways than one. When Maureen first tried out for the team she was a troubled, skinny, drug abuser and no one would give her the time of day. Except for Clary. She gave her a spot on the team and worked with her after school to make sure she knew all the routines. Clary was the one who taught her that her problems wouldn't be fixed with a few grams of coke. And it was Clary that patiently helped her to eventually become clean, almost one whole year ago. Clary always had a soft spot for Maureen and that's why she only kicked her off the team. If it had been anyone else she would have hatched up a plan much worse, considering Seb is one of her closest friends. But, having watched Maureen change into a better person, Clary was feeling a but pitiful._

 _Maureen's eyes grew even wider and Clary had to bite her lip not to wipe the leaking tears from the girls eyes. Maureen stayed silent, knowing Clary could have made her punishment considerably worse. She bowed her head and mumbled a muffled apology._

 _"It's not me that you need to apologise to." Clary regarded them both with a blank expression and turned to leave. Before she walked out of the door she looked back towards Maureen and said, "I hope those couple of minutes with newbie was worth it." And then she continued to walk to Jon's car with a grim expression, where she immediately told him of her encounter._

Shaking her head to clear the memory, she noticed Jon looking at her with concern..again. "God Jon stop being so depressive, I'm fine!"

Jon's face grew pale and his expression somber, "You can't joke about things like that Clary." His voice was deep and authoritative.

"I can and I will, Jonathan!" She yelled at him, and only felt a little guilty as she saw a flicker of hurt flash across his face before he straightened up. He was about to say something when Clary interrupted, opening the door quickly in the process. "As for our new cheerleader, she will be fine. After all, we don't just give anyone the spot on our squad. Thanks for the concern, but it's only a football game. They are like practises for us." Jon's face had turned into a gaping fish and Clary just slammed the door in his face.

Clary walked into school like normal. Except it wasn't normal. Not to all of the students at Alicante. Oh no, Clarissa Morgenstern was walking into school SOLO. That has never happened. Not even that one time when Jon had the flu and Clary was forced to come into school after already spending three days off 'nurturing' Jon. And by 'nurturing' she meant eating chocolate and having a Marvel movie marathon with him, and occasionally getting him water when she felt like it. No, even then when she had to drive to school on her own, she was greeted immediately by Simon the second she set one foot out of the car. So why was little Clarissa Morgenstern all of a sudden not afraid.

Well she was afraid. Clary didn't realise how big of a mistake she made when she left Jon in the car while she walked on her own. She could feel them. Everyone looking at her. Was that a dirty look the chess club just gave her? Clary was certain it was. She could feel the whispers and rumours spreading about her.."Clary is.." .."Clary has.." .."Ew, look at Clary's".. It was all too much for her. She could feel it's becoming harder to breathe. She tried to keep one foot in front of the other, she tried to block out everyone around her, she tried to ignore the shadow creeping up behind her.

"Clary, look I'm sorry, I just love you that's all." Jon's voice filled in her ears and she instantly felt safer. He linked their arms and she felt her lungs beginning to work properly again as if she was missing a part of her. Jon always came when she needed him, how could she ever doubt him.

"I know Jon, I'm sorry too." Clary leant against him and Jon turned to give her a goofy grin. She couldn't help but smile back.

The twins walked into homeroom as usual, and sat in the same seats as usual, and everything was normal. They were in a deep conversation about Sebastian and Maureen when the side of the door interrupted them. Everyone swung their heads around to see the new boy. The dark one.

Clary eyed him warily. His pretty face and beautiful blue eyes were drawing many girls to him, and Clary waited to see if he was a cocky jerk or not. It turns out, he defiantly was not a cocky jerk. As soon as he noticed everyone staring at him, he turned a dark shade of red and hurriedly shuffled to the closest empty seat. Clary decided she liked this boy as she watched him politely smile to all the girls who were trying to flirt with him. When he caught Clary's scrutinising gaze he froze slightly, but once Clary gave him a small smile he quickly returned it and faced the front.

Homeroom finished and Clary was worrying about what state Sebastian was going to be in, after all they were lab partners. While thinking about how to comfort Sebastian next period, she saw Alec juggling books and looking between classrooms and his timetable with a scrunched up face.

Clary nudged Jon who was chatting to one of the football players and he turned to her after saying goodbye to his friend. He raised his eyebrows expectantly, and she just silently pointed with her head to the new boy.

"What Clary? Again? I don't know why you just can't do it." Jon mumbled to his sister, but still stalked over to Alec with her in tow.

"Hey, Alec right?" Jon's casual voice was in place, and he put his hand on his shoulder while motioning to his timetable. "What have you got next? We'll walk you, it'll save you a couple minutes."

Alec was speechless. He didn't expect anyone to help him find classes, let alone the two most popular people in the school. He awkwardly nodded his head and replied, "Uh, history I think..with Mrs..Dorothea?" It sounded more like a question and the twins grinned at his shyness.

"Ouch, Madame Dorothea is strict, we don't want to be late for her, especially it being your second day and all. Come on, let's go." Jon spun around expectantly from his place a few metres in front when Alec didn't follow him.

Clary gently grabbed his hand and pulled him forward towards his class. She smiled softly to him, and his cheeks filled with colour again. He let her pull him along until they reached Jon who was looking quizzically at his sister. She's never voluntarily held a boys hand before, well one that she hadn't known for at least a year.

They reached history in silence, and only a few seconds after the bell had gone too. The boys walked in and Jon waved a goodbye to Clary who had science a few classrooms down. Alec smiled and nodded his head in appreciation of her kindness. She returned it, and watched Jon motion to a seat beside him for Alec. At least he's looking after him, Clary thought.

Clary turned away, formulating a good explanation to why she was late to class. She had just reasoned that she would tell Mr Wayland the truth, she was helping out after all, when she heard a slammed door and heavy footsteps approaching her.

Now, she had already been expecting Sebastian to look a little bit of a mess, considering he was head over heels in love with Maureen. I mean, they even talked about going to the same college just to stay together. Poor kid, his heart is probably breaking. But Clary had been expecting him to just look tired and down, assuming that all his anger would have been gone by the morning, and so Clary was expecting to just pick up the pieces of Sebastian's heart while he cried into her shoulder, not while he tried to beat up anything within his reach. Just like he was doing now.

Sebastian was punching lockers left, right, and centre. Screaming and yelling at nothing, and didn't even notice Clary in his angry episode. He was stomping towards her with no intention of moving out of her walk way. She expected him to stop and talk to her about it but instead he just rammed into her, knocking her over in the process. Sebastian seemed to snap out of his anger when he heard Clary yelp. He rushed towards her and began apologising so quickly, Clary just about understood what he was saying.

"Clary, I'm so so sorry, I didn't see you there, I just weren't looking where I was going, there is so much anger in me Clary, she told me, she told me what she did just now, with HIM, who does he think he is coming into our school and stealing my girlfriend, it's not fair Clary, he deserves to pay, why didn't you make him pay Clary, why? It hurts so much.." Sebastian's speech started apologetic, then turned angry, and then ended with so much pain in his voice Clary could barely hug him just in time for him to begin wailing.

Despite her bruised shoulder, Clary murmured soft comforting words in Sebastian's ear while hugging him as tightly as he was her. "Sh, Seb it's going to be alright. You don't need her anymore. I've sorted it, I've sorted everything."

Sebastian's cries halted after ten minutes, and he looked at Clary with wide eyes. "She said she loved me. We were going to Florida together, we had it sorted. How could she do this to me?" Clary's heart almost broke at the hurt and betrayal plain on his face. But Sebastian's next words made her look away and a feeling of guilt pooled in her stomach. "She told me about cheerleading, that you kicked her off. I get it, you have a soft spot for her, we've all seen it. But him? You don't even know him and he's already getting away without punishment. Is he better than us?" Sebastian searched Clary's face as she was still refusing to look at him. "Is he better than me, Clare?"

At this Clary snapped her eyes to Sebastian's face. He was the only person, other than Jon, who ever called her Clare. She saw how torn up he was about this, he actually believed that Maureen was too good for him; she was the cheating bastard! Anger and guilt flooded Clary and she hurriedly began to reassure Sebastian. "Seb no, how could you even think that? Of course he's not better than you, you are worth more than them. It's-it's just complicated. Something I did."

She tried to squeeze Seb tighter into a bone crushing hug but he pulled away. "Complicated? How? What did you do, Clare?" He whispered now, his anger diffused slightly, and worry spread across his face. Seb knew about Clary's..situation, and she of his. He waited patiently for her to reply and squeezed her hand in support.

"Nothing. It was nothing Seb. Honestly I'm fine. He just helped me out, not that I asked, but I'm grateful all the same. And it wasn't his entire fault with Maureen, he didn't know about you, and I know I sound like I'm making excuses for him but I just couldn't punish him when I was in his debt. I'm so sorry, Seb." She crumpled into his embrace, mumbling the word sorry over and over into his chest.

Sebastian patted her back comfortingly. "Clare, it's ok. Look at me, it's going to be alright. Me, I'll get through this. I'm tough, well as tough as a person who just cried in the middle of a hallway can be." She giggled and sniffed at his attempt to lighten the situation. "How did he help, Clary? Where was Jon? And Simon? Damn, where the hell was I?"

She gave a short chuckle. "Calm down Seb, I wasn't in THAT kind of trouble. I just decided to ditch my last few last periods, which were basically free's anyway, and I may have exercised more than I planned that's all." Seb raised his eyebrow but stayed silent as he knew what 'over exercising' meant in Clary terms. She continued, "Jace must have seen me running and decided to get Jon. So I kind of owed him."

She looked up and saw Sebastian's expression. And immediately began to defend herself. "No no no no, don't look at me like that Sebatian Verlac. I'm fine, there is no need for those 'oh-she's-so-fragile' eyes. I'm not the one who got cheated on, I should be looking at YOU like that."

"Yes Clary, but I haven't even thought about doing anything stupid in ten months, can you say the same?" Clary froze. No she couldn't say the same. Clary's dark thoughts hadn't been with her for a while now, but not as far as ten months ago. "Yeah, I didn't think so."

Sebastian got up and pulled her still stiff body off the ground with him. He wrapped a protective arm around her and guided her towards their next period, study hall. After seeing her still blank expression he told her,

"You don't have to worry about me Clare, I'm not going to try and end my life again. I know now that there is so much more to see in the world. And you Clary Morgenstern are going to see it all with me."


	6. Chapter 6

**Hiya guys, sorry it's been a bit longer than all my other updates, I have no excuse apart from getting slightly too intoxicated for a friends hen do..  
Thank you so so so much for all your lovely reviews, they make my day every one of them! Let me know what you think of this chapter, who's your favourite/who's your least favourite (hopefully no one yet) but leave a message anyway! **

***Disclaimer; The Mortal Instruments are owned by Cassandra Clare**

Clary and Sebastian used study hall to catch up on what they had just missed in Mr Wayland's class. Usually Mr Wayland was one of the meanest teachers in the school, but he did have a soft spot for Clary. So, after Clary came back to her usual self, they both walked back down to their science classroom where Mr Wayland was spinning in his chair expectantly.

"Ah and what do I owe the pleasure Miss Morgenstern. Although I would have rather to have seen your presence in class an hour earlier." His beady eyes softened when he saw her innocent face, and he offered her a smile.

"Yes, I am so sorry for my absence Sir. You see I was helping one of the new boys find his class and so I was late coming here, and then I happened to run into Sebastian and I could not leave him when he seemed so upset. I hope you understand Sir, and of course we will catch up on all the work we missed today." Clary's tone was very convincing and apologetic. You would have had to be a cold hearted rock to blame her for missing the lesson, and even then I don't think you could punish her.

"Oh Clarissa. You are always trying to help others, even if it costs you your education. Such a thoughtful and compassionate student! Well, as for work you did not miss much, just read up on the last eight chapters from the booklet, and I'll just 'forget' to tell you about the homework questions." Mr Wayland gave an exaggerated wink and sent his 'most favourite pupil' on her way..oh and Sebastian who he entirely forgot about.

Meanwhile, whilst Sebastian was bugging Clary on why she was actually doing the homework Mr Wayland told them they didn't actually have to do, Jace and Simon were becoming closer than they expected.

Literally. They were paired up in gym and it was sparring season. Jace and Simon were put together randomly, much to both's resentment. Jace had pinned Simon to the floor three times in the last ten minutes. It would have been more but Simon kept laying on the ground for two minutes every time Jace pinned him down.

Jace would much rather be paired with Jonathan who looked like he was actually enjoying fighting with Jordan Kyle. Their laughter surrounded them as Jordan childishly poked Jon, and Jon dramatically fell to the ground in slow motion, shouting "Noooooooooooo". They began again, seriously this time because the teacher was glaring at them.

Jace jumped when Simon spoke in his ear. "You know, if you like him just go talk to him. There's no judging over in this corner." Simon pointed to the corner they were in and stupidly grinned at Jace.

"Shut up rat-face, I don't like him. Just watching someone who can actually fight for more than one minute." Jace snapped harshly back at him. Simon's face turned livid at Jace thinking he couldn't take him. Simon suddenly lunged at Jace and Jace, being caught off guard, stumbled back from the unexpected attack.

Simon could not believe this dyed-blonde wannabe. He thought that if he pretended to be harmless to Jace then maybe he wouldn't try to stop him from going after Isabelle. But now, oh no. Who was he to insult Simon Lewis? Obviously he didn't know what connections he had at this school; Clarissa being one of them.

Simon and Jace began to circle each other, getting a few punches here and a couple of kicks there but nothing solid enough to knock the other down. Their match had worked up a sort of crowd with Jonathan and Jordan in the front row, of course. They both began a match commentary much to the classes amusement.

"Oo ouch, that must of hurt."

"Yes Lewis, that was a good hit."

"Nice hit Jace, that'll leave a mark, well bruise..whatever."

"Stop circling and hit each other you babies!"

"Seriously, stop circling you're making me feel sick."

"Jordan, don't you dare puke on me, this top is new!"

"Sorry Jon, there was just so much spinning. I told them to stop."

"Jordan, you're dead!"

The commentary ceased, not that the two boys were taking any notice anyway, they had both worked up a sweat. Jace was determined to not let the skinny rat defeat him, and Simon was determined to show this cocky douche that he wasn't to be messed with.

After another long six minutes, Simon finally got the upper hand and right hooked Jace and continued to pin him down for three seconds. They were both greedily gulping air, and Simon leaned in and breathed, "Don't underestimate me, asshole."

Simon stood up, leaving Jace surprisingly speechless, and a bit humiliated, on the floor. He can't believe he was beaten, by a rat no less, and in front of Jon and Jordan too. Simon was greeted by a now shirtless Jon and a sheepish looking Jordan who raised one of Simon's arm and bellowed, "WE HAVE OUR CHAAAAAMPIOOOONN, SIMON LEWIS!"

Jonathan joined the charade by being the 'excited crowd' and chanting: "LEW-IS, LEW-IS, LEW-IS!" They did this all the way to the locker room, while Jace was still confused on the floor.

Lunch rolled around yet again, and Simon was still on high spirits and had a new-found confidence after his win in Gym. Why was Simon so excited for lunch you ask? Well it's not for the veggie burgers they were serving today, although they are his favourite. No, it was because he was spending lunch with Isabelle Lightwood! After yesterday's manic food fight, and Simon sacrificing himself for Isabelle by getting smacked in the face by chocolate cake, Isabelle thanked him and re-introduced herself to him.

 _"Hi, I'm Isabelle Lightwood, but call me Izzy." She outstretched her hand to Simon who shook it, after pulling his adoring gaze from her beautiful face._

 _"Uh,I'm uh, I'm Si-Simon Lewis." She smiled brightly at him, and giggled as she wiped some of the remaining chocolate cake off of his face._

 _"Thanks for saving me from this mess, it took me hours to get myself ready this morning. I can't believe it was ruined by food! And I haven't even ate anything!" She looked down at her uniform sadly._

 _"No problem, you look beautiful anyway, even when you are covered in pasta." They both laughed as he pulled a long piece of spaghetti off the top of her head. "Uh, if you want you can sit by me for lunch tomorrow?" He watched her face change as she bit her lip. As she was about to reply, Simon emended himself, "I mean, on the same table as me, you know next to Clary? The ginger one who threw pasta at you? She asked me to tell you to sit by us tomorrow. So, would you?"_

Simon was ashamed by his lie when he looked back on in, but the excitement of Izzy actually agreeing to sit with him at lunch always seems to outweigh his shame. He strolled into the lunch room and saw no one at the top table yet. Expecting that he had plenty of time he queued to grab his veggie burger before quickening his pace to where Isabelle was now sitting.

He reached Isabelle at the top table at the same time as another student began questioning her on the right to sit there.

"I was invited to sit here thank you very much." Isabelle replied with confidence as Simon internally prayed for her not to mention who had actually invited her. Simon's prayers were not answered as a member of the band geeks asked her who, yes one of his own threw him to the wolves.

"Clary invited me." Isabelle spoke confidently. However, her bragging came to a short end, as did the school's whispering, the exact same time as Simon's face went ridiculously pale and a confused voice spoke up behind him. One he knew came from a particular redhead.

"I didn't invite you."


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi guys its me again! Thank you so so soooo much for the reviews and followers it means the world to me! One or two of you have guessed about Seb and Clary's situation, but I can tell you that in future chapters (not the next one) it subtly comes out. Clary's is a bit more blunter in what has happened to her but there is a few chapters to wait and a lot of drama before you find out. Anyways, REVIEW and let me know what you think/how your day is going. Enjoy..**

 ***I still do not own the Mortal Instruments**

Everyone broke out into laugher and Isabelle's face began to turn a crimson, bright with humiliation. Clary looked on with her confused gaze, and looked towards Simon for some explanation.

Simon stayed silent as Isabelle quickly ran out of the room, fast approaching tears spilling out of her eyes. Clary looked even more confused and begged for someone to tell her what the heck was going on, and why the new girl was crying her eyes out.

"She thought she was worthy to sit next to you!" A random freshman called out to her.

"And she had the cheek to say you asked her." Another one shouted back, barely containing her giggles.

"But where would she get an idea like that? I barely spoke two sentences to her?" Clary felt awful. Although it wasn't actually her fault, Isabelle thought it to be, and Clary still wanted to make things better. After all, she was family now. She turned to Simon for some clarity. "Si?"

Simon looked at her silently. She was always so oblivious. "Look Clary, I invited her, but she was going to decline sitting with me! What was I suppose to do, let her turn me down in front of everyone? It would have been embarrassing! And now you've messed it up! You humiliated her! This is your fault!" Simon knew he shouldn't put blame on Clary. But everyone forgave her. Actually, no one really blamed her for anything in the first place. He hurriedly got up and left the cafeteria before he caved and apologised to her, and so he went to look for the crying Lightwood.

Clary was stunned. She was still stood up, holding her lunch bag, replying the words Simon told her. She felt awful. Maybe it was her fault? Shouldn't she have known that there was a logical reason for Isabelle lying about her. Yes, she should have waited before confronting her on her lies. She should have known that Simon probably invited Isabelle to lunch. God, she was so stupid sometimes. She continued to think about how badly Isabelle must feel, all because of her, and Jon found her in the same standing position five minutes later.

"Clary? Where is everyone?" Jon looked around to the empty seats surrounding them and then back at his sister. "Clary?"

"Oh God Jon, why am I such a horrible person?" She numbly sat down and she told the story to Jon who sat with a quizzical expression on his face until she mentioned what Simon said. His face grew hard.

"Simon said that to you?! That little son of a-"

"Jon, stop, it's okay. It was my fault really, I shouldn't have said anything. I just feel so bad. I mean she was pretty upset." Clary sighed.

"It wasn't your fault Clary. It was Lewis'." Jon sighed. Knowing his sister was going to feel terrible about this for a while, he changed the subject to take her mind off it. "Now, where is everyone else? We look like lonely losers." Jon's chuckled, and Clary giggled back.

"Well Seb's gone home. He couldn't handle seeing Maureen for the day. Simon went after Isabelle, Maia is posting the cheerleading tryouts sheet for after school, and I'm not really sure where everyone else is."

"Oh. Well I guess you are stuck with just my marvellous self, like usual. You'll never guess what Jordan done in Gym today.." Jon recounted second period's acts and how Jordan ruined his newest gym shirt. The twins erupted into a fit of giggles at his story, and Clary's troubles were soon forgotten.

* * *

Clary and Jon made their way to English with Jordan, talking animatedly about his party after the game tomorrow. They agreed that Jordan would pick the twins and Maia up, who Clary insisted on coming with her to let loose over her break up, before school and they would all just bring spare clothes in their bags for the party. They walked into class and sat down, and was soon followed by Isabelle and Simon who both gave Clary weak smiles and sat in front of her.

Despite Jon telling her it was not her fault, Clary still felt that she should apologise. Clary tapped Isabelle on the shoulder and she turned around, a shocked expression on her face.

"Isabelle, I'm so sorry that you were embarrassed at lunch, I should have just not said anything about it. I hope we can start over. There's cheerleading tryouts today after school, one spot open, I think you'd be great if you're up for it?" Clary searched Isabelle's face for any hint of disgust, she found none and then Isabelle broke into a grin. Clary released a mini sigh of relief as the other girl chatted excitedly about how she would definitely be there after school, and how wonderful it would be to actually perform with one of the best squads in the world. Yes, she said world. I guess she really wanted to be on the team. Clary smiled back and told her to meet in the gym at the end of school, and tuned into the lesson Mr Graymark was about to begin.

* * *

"And again, from the top! 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Well done girls!" Clary and the rest of the squad were at cheer tryouts, and they were weaving in between all the eager girls desperate to get on the team. Clary could feel their energy and was bouncing to announce their new member.

"Ok girls, that's it, we're going to have a quick discussion and let you know. See you in five!" The cheer team huddled together and began calling out who they thought would be in the team. They eventually came down to their decision, and sent the other unlucky girls home.

"Isabelle, congratulations! You really are perfect for the team. But Maureen was a flyer and we have to perform at the game tomorrow, so there won't be enough time to practice all the jumps with you. So Tessa, you are going to be my new left flyer, Maia stays my right, and Isabelle you can be a part of my base, ok? Everyone clear? Let's go!" Clary clapped her hands together and everyone got into position.

While the girls were teaching Isabelle tomorrow's routine, the football team also had practice. A practice that was interrupted by the two new boys.

"Newbies what are you doing here? If you've come to get floored by Lewis again you're out of luck. But you could find him in music though, he's not much of a football dude," one of the football players shouted out to them, followed by the team's laughter.

Jace just ignored his comment. "We're here to join the football team."

"What makes you think we need you? Our team is pretty pro without you two anyway," William Herondale taunted to them. He gave Jace a knowing wink, to which he smirked back. Was there a hint of recognition there? Jon wasn't sure but Alec spoke up before he could investigate further.

"Well you wouldn't mind us playing with you guys then? Obviously you have nothing to worry about." Alec gave them a cheeky grin and the two boys ran to the field where their team completely destroyed the other side.

At the end of practice the team crowded Jon and insisted they have the two boys on the team.

"Guys, if we have the boys, two of you are going to be benched. And if they play as good as they did today, it's probably going to be for the rest of the season. So are we all good with that?" Jon looked at all the boys individually, and they all reluctantly nodded their heads. They knew this was best for the team. "Ok then."

Jon's turned to the two brothers who were chatting around by the water bottles. "Yo, Jace, Alec! I expect to see you here tomorrow at 2 o'clock for practice. You'll get your jerseys then, and don't worry about your last periods, I'll sort it." Jace and Alec grinned to each other and walked over to the car park with the rest of the team.

As they were walking out they met up with the cheerleaders and their new edition. "Hey Clary, how did cheer go? I see you've kidnapped the new girl for your team." Jon greeted Clary and the girls with a grin as Clary shoved him in return.

"Shut up Jon, like you haven't done the same. We have two new players do we?" Clary smirked in their direction just as Will Herondale hooked his arm around her shoulder.

"Yep, now you have two Herondale's on the team. Oh how will you keep focus on your routine when you have two beauties running around next to you."

Everyone looked at him puzzled. Clary, being the quickest to gain her speech back, questioned, "Two Herondale's? Since when do you have a brother Will?"

"Not brother. I'm his cousin." Jace spoke, and both the football and cheer team looked at him. He shrugged nonchalantly and Will clapped him on the back.

"Long time no see cuz. You're going to fit riiight in here." They both sauntered off in the exact same way, looking more like twins than cousins, leaving everyone staring after them.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hi everyone! Your lovely reviews and support are amazing, thank you so so much! They really do encourage me and give me confidence to post more chapters for you all! This chapter is probably one of my favourites, mostly because I love Alec but it is just a little fun, with a little insight into Clary (of course). Let me know what you think please, REVIEW! And enjoy..**

 ***Disclaimer; I still do not own the Mortal Instruments, sadly**

It was less than an hour until the football game. Jace and Alec had turned up at 2 o'clock sharp, just like they were told to. They had began practising with the rest of the team. Nothing too heavy, a few team talks held by Jon, and occasionally Jordan. They had both been practising their confident but stern expressions in the car that morning. Clary had told them that they looked like they were trying to go to the toilet and so they immediately stopped and glared at the redhead. She had thought that was their mini payback for dumping her in the back seat while Jon rides shotgun. Not that she minded the backseat of Jordan's truck, she found it quite interesting watching the world go by so quickly. Although, many of her interesting thoughts on how quickly the scenery goes by often leads to how quickly life can pass and then results in getting herself in a state. So that morning she decided to watch the two both perfect their team talk faces, and sometimes even contributed tips on which looked better. At the end of one of Jon's speeches he told the boys go get changed and threw a jersey each to both of the new boys.

The boys looked at the navy jersey with white strips, but what made their faces almost break because of how big their grins were after seeing their names plastered on the back of them. They ran off to the changing rooms with the other boys, and finally felt part of the team.

Clary was stressed out. When wasn't she? But today she was stressed out because Isabelle hadn't returned from her "five minute break" twenty minutes ago! The game started in ten minutes and Clary didn't even know if she was confident on the routine. It wasn't one of their best routines but still, one of their bad ones would still be classed as pretty impressive compared to the visiting schools cheer squad.

"FINALLY! Isabelle, where have you been!?" Clary's eyes looked like they were about to pop, and if looks could kill Isabelle would be dead in a second. "The game starts in ten minutes, we are going out in exactly two minutes!"

"Calm down Clary, I just grabbed a little glitter to make us looked extra gorgeous. Here," she dabbed some glitter onto Clary's face quickly and rushed around the rest of the team to apply the same.

Clary took a deep breath, and looked out to all the people in the stands. She hated this. Standing where everyone could see her. She wished she had confidence, but when everyone's eyes were looking at her she could sense them laughing at her appearance and sniggering if she messed up a move. She hated how it felt like everyone was watching her, waiting for her to mess up again. She nervously fidgeted thinking about the routine.

Although, she didn't have very long to dwell on her stage fright as she was suddenly leading her team in front of the bleachers and giving a routine that riled the crowd up.

While her plastic smile was stuck to her face, she tried to ignore that everyone could see her and her fake smile soon turned into a genuine grin. She loved cheerleading. She thought it was great how you can rally a crowd up just with some cheers. She loved this school, her family. And it appears so did everyone else.

* * *

The game passed quite quickly, and surprise surprise Alicante Werewolves wiped the floor with the visiting team. The school was in such high spirits, like always, and fled to the football field to celebrate, like always.

Clary was running to her brother when she got intercepted by another player. She stumbled back, just about catching her balance from running into those heavy shoulder pads.

"Shit, Clary I'm sorry! I didn't see you there, it's just-I saw Jace go over there and then I lost him-I wasn't looking where I was going-but you knew that obviously because you were there and I ran int-" Alec got cut off by Clary's arms being wrapped around him. He was stunned, his arms staying limp by his waist. He didn't know what to do.

"Congratulations Alec! We won! Alec we won, it's time to celebrate!" She shouted excitedly in his ear, still hugging him.

Alec's mind soon began to come back to him and he just as excitedly grabbed Clary's waist and spun her around. She threw her head back while laughing and they both began chanting and laughing together.

When Clary returned to the ground she grabbed Alec's hand and pushed her way through to the rest of the football team. This was Alec's first win and no way was she going to let him miss out on their tradition. If the football team won the game -which they did- then the rest of the school would flood the field -which they had- and then they would all simultaneously lift the football team in a sea of support -which they were about to do.

Clary couldn't wait to see Alec's face. She was basically jumping she was so ecstatic. Everyone counted down from three.

"3!"

Clary pushed Alec further into the sea of people.

"2!"

Alec stumbled forward and shot Clary a confused look.

"Clary, what are they do-"

"1!"

Alec got cut off by him being lifted quite effortlessly by a bunch of the drama department. His face turned into a mask of surprise, but soon resumed his cheshire cat smile when he noticed the rest of his team was in the same position.

Jon began the chants and soon everyone followed. They done a lap of victory around the field while they all sang, "WERE-WOLVES, WERE-WOLVES, WERE-WOLVES!"

Clary skipped around the field with the cheerleaders by her side. They were all smiling at the schools behaviour and dancing along to the beat. She noticed they were about to pass the visiting team, and she studied their pouting faces. All of them had stopped and was watching Alicante's tradition with an expression Clary couldn't understand. She was studying them curiously, and it wasn't until one of their players grabbed Isabelle and pulled her towards them that Clary snapped out of her daze.

She strode over to the player with his grubby hands on Isabelle's arms and was close enough to hear what the boy spoke in her ear.

"What is a pretty girl like you doing in this messed up little school? Daddy not love you anymore? Well I can show you what love is baby." He tried to latch his gross lips onto Isabelle's struggling ones. Just as he was about to connect them, Clary butted in.

"Now boys, we don't want any trouble. We already kicked your asses on the field, you don't want us to do it off as well, right?" She spoke so sweetly that they all stopped to look at this petite little red head. The player holding Isabelle roughly pushed her away and sauntered over to Clary.

Clary stood her ground and didn't even flinch when the boy spat saliva on her face. "Oh you want me too, do you? Couldn't let your little friend have all the fun could you? Yeah, I could get used to you little red." He grabbed her arm and pulled her flush towards him.

However, he regretted that move when she executed a perfect kick to the shins and flipped out of his embrace. She leant down to his now crouching and groaning figure and whispered, "Next time, you leave us alone, got it?" She practically growled the end of her sentence and huddled Isabelle back towards the field.

They were almost back to the rest of the school when they barely heard, "Whatever, you are all messed up anyway! Stay in your pathetic little school for now, but you can't hide in there forever!"

Clary grit her teeth and continued to walk with Isabelle. It took all her restrain not to turn around and give those asshats a piece of her 'pathetic school,'. Nothing irritated her more than an insult to her school. Isabelle was silent and Clary glanced over to see a frown on her face.

"Isabelle, are you ok? Did he grip you hard? I'm sorry, I should have been paying more attention and gotten you away from them sooner." Isabelle shook her head and gave Clary a small smile.

"No, I'm fine. I was shocked that's all." She shuddered, "Ew, I can't believe his greasy hands were on me! As if HE could get off with ME?" Isabelle laughed and Clary gave a weak smile. She admired Isabelle's confidence, she really did, but she didn't agree with people not being good enough for someone else. Yes, that boy was a disgusting pig but didn't he deserve a chance to be happy too? Clary quickly shook her head to end her thoughts before she delved deeper into her dream world.

She plastered a fake smile on her face and linked arms with Isabelle. "Come on, let's catch up so we can start this victory party!" Clary's fake enthusiasm sparked an excitement in Isabelle's body and the two girls bounded after the schools population to finish the end of the lap.

* * *

When Clary and Isabelle finally met up with the cheerleaders and football players they were greeted with a huge group hug. The perfect hugging circle was formed: boy, girl, boy, girl. Clary was squished in between Jon and William Herondale, who was next to his long time crush Tessa Grey, and so on. They were all jumping and laughing, half of their words getting lost in another round of chants -usually started by no other than Will himself. Isabelle was in the middle of Jace and Alec and they couldn't help but share grins as they all thought that this school was going to be different. And they couldn't be more right.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hiya guys, I'm so glad you are all enjoying the story, and I love all your reviews so thank you thank you thank you!**

 **I would just like to say that publishing any story on here is a daunting task, and it can really change your confidence whether you get good feedback or bad feedback. All authors on here put 100% effort into their stories, and sometimes I don't think people appreciate that everyone is trying their best. I'm not picking out anyone, but I will try and make this story as interesting and captivating as I can, but as I have said in previous chapters I have already written the majority of my chapters already. The storyline is quite slow, and focuses on character developments rather than a 'bad guy' and a 'hero'. I'm not saying there isn't any not-so-nice-people in this story, but there isn't an action packed fighting scene where someone gets shot or something like that..**

 **Anyways, enough of my rambling, I hope you enjoy this chapter, let me know what you think, REVIEW, FAVOURITE, FOLLOW, whatever you wish to do I am very grateful!**

 ***Disclaimer; I don't own the Mortal Instruments.**

Just as Jordan and the twins had planned, he drove the three of them plus Maia back to his house for the party. They were all sitting in the car, the twins in the backseat and Maia riding shotgun because her and Jordan claimed they needed time to 'get to know each other'. Clary still found it weird that Jordan and Maia had never said more than four words to each other when they practically see each other everyday! She found it bizarre if anyone didn't know the people in their year at school, she thought everyone did? Well, Clary and Jonathan did anyway.

While Maia and Jordan were discussing their favourite bands -which were all coincidentally the same- Jonathan was interrogating his sister on why she hadn't congratulated him at the game.

"Jon, I tried! But I kind of ran into Alec..literally. And he was about to miss the lifting of the team and I couldn't let him miss his first win with you guys! And then there was some trouble with Isabelle, but it's all sorted now so no need to panic just some asshats that don't understand respect." Clary was frowning by the end of her explanation, she remembered the force the boy had used to grab Isabelle, as if he could just grab and touch whoever he wanted! Clary was starting to get furious all over again.

Jon was equally as angry. "What do you mean trouble Clary? What guys? What did they do to you? Who are they? I'm going to kill them!" Jonathan's outburst didn't surprise Clary, she was used to his overprotectiveness, and so she knew how to calm him.

She placed her hand on his arm and explained, "I took care of it, some beefhead grabbed Isabelle, and I just stepped in and politely told him to leave her alone." She stated it so innocently that Jonathan turned his head to face her, his anger diminished slightly, and raised an eyebrow.

"Politely?"

"Yes. And when he continued to come onto me, I kicked him in the shins and left him crying like a baby. So, you can't say I didn't try to take the high road." She shrugged simply to him, and he chuckled.

"Ah yes, the high road, you always try to take it but that never works out because you're so short." Jonathan grinned at her and she maturely stuck her tongue back out at him.

* * *

After arriving at Jordan's, Maia dragged Clary up to a spare bedroom and threw all the contents of her three bags onto the bed. Yes, three bags. Maia was very thorough with parties. She had already spoke about what Clary was wearing the night before just to make sure she didn't bring her usual jeans and t-shirt attire.

"Ok Clary, have a shower and dry your hair, then we'll get changed and start on makeup. It shouldn't take long, my hair is naturally curly and we'll just need to tame your magnificent hair to a level everyone can handle." Maia winked, and Clary knew in other words she was saying her hair was a frizz bomb and needed much more work than hers did.

A five minute shower, a blow dryer and a lot of anti-frizz serum later, Clary's hair was looking vibrant and styled perfectly. The girls were almost done, and after a quick heated argument about wearing heels, Maia forced Clary into a pair of black heeled boots.

"It compliments the look Clary, you look gorgeous!" Maia gushed.

Well, Clary didn't feel gorgeous. She felt ridiculous. She looked at herself in the full length mirror and couldn't see this 'gorgeousness' Maia was telling her about. She saw a five foot girl in a bralet that was practically promoting her pale skin because it was dark and glittery. She saw a freckle faced girl who had applied make up in order to make herself look somewhat decent. She saw pastey white legs which where far too big for her liking. And finally these gigantic heels that she could barely walk in. Who was this girl? Clary didn't know. But then again, Clary didn't know herself. She didn't know who she was, she didn't know who she wanted to be, she didn't really know a lot about herself, and that thought scared her.

Shaking her out of her terrible self esteem scrutiny was a flash of a camera. It took Clary a while to blink out the dots spotting her vision and noticed Maia grinning like a maniac. Clary studied her and found herself wishing she could pull off a simple shorts and bralet like her friend. Maia had all the curves in the right places, and she had a pretty face with a nice personality too. _How is that fair?_ Clary thought, _she gets to be perfect all over and I can't even look decent in one place._

Clary decided that she was just going to play her happy facade, like always, and at least pretend she was having fun. Maybe she will get drunk tonight, at least then she can forget about all her thoughts.

Clary and Maia took several photos. Most of them consisted of Clary pulling a silly face behind Maia, who was smiling at the camera or pouting at Clary because she wouldn't take a serious one.

"Clary! Come on, just ONE nice one, pleeeeeease?" Clary reluctantly nodded her head and Maia took the photo triumphantly, only to discover that Clary was yet again sticking her tongue out to the camera.

"Clary," Maia whined. "The longer you take, the less of the party you are going to be in, your choice." After a few seconds of pause Maia added, "Hey can you hear that, I think someone is having a drinking contest. Aw damn Clary, if only you could join them and watch. What a bummer." Maia slapped her hand on her leg dramatically, and pronounced her words with so much sarcasm Clary was quite impressed.

Although Clary wouldn't actually have minded staying in the room away from the party, she knew her friend would expect her to be itching to join the crowd, and so she did what she did best, she pretended.

"Aw come on Maia! Ok, I promise I'll be good this time. Just one photo ok? ONE!" She held her finger up for emphasis on the one, and Maia nodded her head enthusiastically.

"Yay, I knew you couldn't miss a party for long!" Maia practically squealed, while Clary resisted the urge to roll her eyes and frown at how badly her friend knew her. The camera flashed and after passing Maia's approval, the two girls sashayed out of the bedroom and entered the crazy party downstairs.

Even though the party had already been going on for half an hour since the girls took so long getting ready, Jordan's entire bottom floor was covered in slightly intoxicated high schoolers. Everyone greeted the girls as they walked past and they both made their way to the kitchen.

"Clary, I know you usually only have one drink at a party, but let's just go crazy tonight ok? I just need to have some fun and to forget about my ass of an ex, and you need to have fun with someone other than Jonathan." She poked Clary's side with a beer bottle, and Clary took it from her.

"You know what, I'm going to take you up on that Miss Roberts. It might feel good to forget for a few hours." Clary took a gulp of her beer and winced at the horrid taste. Maia was laughing at Clary's twisted face and then both girls giggled with each other as the made their way into the living room.

Lots of bodies were grinding and jumping together, all packed tightly. Maia and Clary were dancing together, touching the backs and sides of people that they couldn't quite make out. As they were dancing a hand took Maia's waist, and she began to give all her attention to the intruder, which just so happened to be Jordan. Clary wasn't sad about the fact that Maia just sort of ditched her, she was actually happy for the two. Jordan deserves a nice girl and Maia deserves to be treated right. If they found love with each other who was Clary to stop them? So she wandered around, picking up a new drink in between small conversations with random people from school. She was finally on her sixth drink when she encountered Simon.

"Si! I'm so happy to see you! When did you get here?" She practically threw her arms around him after stumbling forward. She hadn't seen him in all day, apart from lunch and even then he hadn't spoken to her much.

"Hey Clary, are you drunk? Maybe we should go sit down yeah? Come on." He guided her back to the kitchen were he practically sat her on a bar stool, after her slipping off several times. "Jesus Clary, how much have you had?" He ran a hand through his hair and mumbled something about Jonathan going mad.

"Simon! Stop being such a party pooper, and have a drink!" She shouted at him, pretending to scold him like a puppy before bursting out in a fit of giggles and grabbing yet another drink.

"Clary come on, I think you've had enough. We said we weren't going to do this anymore." He took the bottle out of her hand and ignored the pouting face she pulled at him. He started to guide her out of the kitchen and hopefully to an empty bedroom so she could sleep her drunkenness off. But as they made it through the door they bumped into no other than model looking Isabelle Lightwood.

"Isabelle! Hiii, I can't believe you'rrre heeeere!" Clary was slurring now and threw her arms around the amused looking girl.

"Hi Clary, I see you're having a good time," she raised her eyebrow at the shorter girl, which caused her to frown. _Why couldn't she do that?_ She wondered. Isabelle had now turned to Simon and said, "I'll help you look after her, she doesn't look like she drinks much." Simon shook his head in return and muttered 'you have no idea' under his breath before they both linked their arms with Clary's and walked slowly with her up the stairs.

Twenty minutes later and Clary was dancing around the room, being too stubborn to go to sleep just yet. When she yelled at her 'babysitters' because they wouldn't let her out of the room, they had just looked at her in amusement, and took her to go to sleep.

"But I don't want to go to sleep. I'm not five, and I'm obviously ruining your night! Come on, look I'm fine, I'll be fine, ok?" She tried to walk in a straight line, and wobbled only a little bit. They had been up in the room an hour already, and she was a little more sober than she was half an hour after she had joined the party. "Look, you two can spend some alone time together, you know get to know each other. Simon here has a cat, Yoshi, and Isabelle also has a cat, Church. Oh my god you two have so much in common like cats and..feeling the need to look after me. Yeah so, have fun and I'll see you later yeah? Bye."

Clary scurried out of the door before they had a chance to argue. But a few seconds later Simon had come barreling out of the door and gripped Clay's arm to steady her. "Are you sure you are going to be ok, Clary? Go find Jon, ok? Straight away. Otherwise I'll lock you in my room for the next week and you will have to listen to my Star Wars jokes and read manga all the time." He said it lightheartedly but there was obvious concern in his eyes. "And thank you for giving me a chance with Isabelle on my own, you are so the best!" He was smiling so widely that Clary was surprised it wasn't hurting his face. He turned to the spare bedroom where Isabelle was sitting and before going in, he turned to Clary and gently reminded her, "Go find Jon, Clary. We want you to be ok." And then he disappeared into his dream -being in a room alone with Isabelle Lightwood.

Clary frowned again at Simon's accusation. Was he saying that she wasn't ok? Clary thought that she was better now, she thought she was ok or at least good at acting she was. But obviously not if everyone can see how badly she is doing! Clary anxiously sprinted down the stairs, tripping a few times on her way. She had to find a way to prove that she was better. To show everyone that she was good, fun to be around.

She scanned the room and locked her slightly glazed eyes with a certain blonde haired boy. Clary strutted over to where he was standing, surrounded by quite a crowd of people. And she knew exactly why. _This,_ she thought, _will prove I'm fun._ She slammed one of the empty shot glasses down on the table in front of the crowd and her smile was full of mischief when she stared at the golden boy and challenged,

"Shots?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Hiya guys, I'm back! Sorry it has been a couple of days..(if anyone cared anyways). I hope you enjoy this chapter, let me know what you think of it, you finally get** **the blunt explanation of what's so different about Alicante Highschool. REVIEW your thoughts, and let me know who is your favourite character is!**

 **Disclaimer; I do not own The Mortal Instruments.**

Everyone around her was chanting her name, calling out to her and Jace to start the drinking contest. Someone had already filled the twenty shot glasses up and they were just waiting for Jace to accept the challenge.

"Look Red, I think you've already had enough for one night." Jace said as he saw her wobbling around to the other side of the table. And every time she tripped there was always someone there to lend a hand to help her on her way again.

Clary was looking quizzically at Jace, "My names Clary." She stated simply.

"Yes, and my names Jace. You do know this, Red. Or are you more drunk than I thought?"

Clary tried to shake the thought off. _Why had he called me Red? Had he already forgotten my name?_ Trying to distract her from her own thoughts she slyly challenged again, "What? Too scared you are going to lose, newbie?"

She had raised both eyebrows at him, because she lacked the ability to move just one, and he smirked back. "Oh I know I would win, I was just saving you the embarrassment of losing in front of all these people."

Clary smirked back. "So it's settled." She shouted to the crowd, "Someone countdown from ten!" And was met instantly with the booming of numbers.

"10!" .. Clary positioned herself in front of her glasses, she wasn't really sure how to take shots because she hadn't really done them before, choosing to drink out of a bottle instead, but thought it couldn't be that hard, right?

During the short countdown, Jace had started to argue with Clary about the contest, claiming she had already had too much.

"Jace I'm going to do this wether you do it with me or not, so you may as well join in!"

.."2!"

"Clary, don't." Clary just looked at him for a split second to see the slight condescending facial expression on his face. As if he could tell her what to do! Why did everyone think they knew what was best for her? Well she was doing what she wanted tonight. And so, with one last scoff in Jace's direction, the countdown ended and she knocked back her first shot.

Clary was reaching for her sixth shot when she realised she wasn't standing by the table anymore. In fact, she wasn't even in the living room anymore, she was being carted up the stairs. She tried to squirm around but her head was banging and the way she felt like she was floating up the stairs was creating hysterical giggles from her mouth.

"Clary, can you stop moving please. I know you're light, but God you've had so much alcohol you feel like a dead weight." Clary instantly stopped moving when the words registered. She felt guilty. _No one should have to carry my ton of a body anywhere._ Then she realised that she recognised that voice, just barely though.

"Alec?" She pondered aloud.

"Yeah, it's me. I sent Jace to get Jon. At least he can't mess that up, I can't believe he let you drink all those shots."

Clary was surprised to hear the slight anger in Alec's voice at his brother. Did Jace _let_ her drink those shots? Clary's head was too blurred to think straight, not even about how Jon was going to be furious with her. And so, she just let her head rest against Alec's shoulder and closed her eyes.

"Clary, Clary, come on, open your eyes." Someone was shouting and shaking Clary's shoulder. She fluttered her eyes open, just to get the person to stop yelling.

"God Jon, do you have to be so loud? I have a headache if you don't mind." Clary tried to glare at her twin but just ended up closing her eyes again.

"You're not sleeping, wake up. How much did you have to drink?" Jon was pulling her up and leaning her into his side to support her body as she was so floppy. They were on a bed now, in the spare room that the girls got ready in just three short hours ago.

"Izzy said she was completely wasted earlier, but then she sobered up a bit. I found her on her sixth shot over by Jace." Alec commented dryly in reply.

"By Jace? Why didn't he stop her? Or get me?" Jon practically growled.

Alec ignored Jonathan's animal sounds and questioned him about his brother instead. "Where is he anyway? Didn't he follow you after telling you about Clary?" He thought his brother would have a least a little decency to see how she was.

"Ahh, he _was_ coming, but got bombarded by Kaelie on the way. I think I saw her drag him up the stairs just now, and let's just say I wouldn't go in Jordan's spare room right now." Jon spoke matter of factly. He hadn't looked disgusted like Alec did, and he didn't say it as though he was jealous. He just stated it, as he thought much like his sister in that if they love each other then isn't that the most important? He focussed his attention back on his sister, "Why did you drink Clary, why? You know what happens after more than one beer! You know it's going to mess your whole medication up! Oh no, what am I going to do?" Jon placed his head in one hand, the other securely wrapped around his sister, and began pulling on his hair.

Alec looked at the twins weirdly. _What happens?_ Yeah everyone knows what happens after a few drinks..they get drunk. _But medication? Is Clary sick?_ Clary tried to mumble apologies to Jon but ended up just dribbling on his shirt.

"I know, I know. Clary, it's okay. Just..what were you thinking? How could you be so irresponsible? You told me. You promised! I can't lose you, not again." He was hugging his sister tightly now, and mumbling his own apologies in her ear. "I'm sorry, it's my fault. I should have been with you, I'm sorry. We'll sort this out, I promise. We'll be ok."

Jon had completely forgotten that the other boy was in the room until he cleared his throat. Jon looked up blankly at Alec, and rose to his feet until he was standing directing in front of him. "Nothing. Not a word about her to anyone, got it? You didn't see her like this, and you didn't hear a word. Ok?" Jon's didn't speak unkindly but there was a certain harshness in his voice that made Alec nod his head.

"Sure, but.." Alec shuffled around, uncomfortable with what he was going to ask, "I mean, what's wrong with her?"

Jon stiffened and spat his words. "Nothing's wrong with her. No one in this school is any better than her ok? Don't speak as if she's not well, because she is. She has to be." Jon spoke the end of his sentence mostly to himself while looking at his sister. He had laid her down on the bed and tucked her in once she had fallen asleep on him again.

Alec silently walked behind Jon and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know, I didn't mean it like that Jon. I was just asking, why does she need medication? I mean, is she sick?"

Jon gave out a short wicked laugh and spoke bluntly to Alec, "We're all sick."

Now Alec was insanely confused. _Sick?_ Who? The twins? _Their whole family?_ "Jon, I don't understand. Who's sick? You're not making any sense."

At this Jon turned around completely to lock gazes with Alec. "Huh, so you really haven't figured it out yet."

Exasperatedly Alec threw his hands up. "What Jon?! Figured what out?!"

Alec was desperately waiting for Jonathan to end his confusion. And so he did.

"The school. _Our_ school. It's different, not like normal schools. It's for.. _not so normal_ kids. The kids nobody wants to show off because there is something wrong with them. The unwanted ones, the tainted, the sick. You aren't normal? You'll be sent here." Jon spoke with much more ferocity now. "Does that stop your little questioning Lightwood? Or have you still not figured it out yet? Your parents sent you away. They aren't proud of you so they sent you here to "help" you."

Alec had frozen. _Sick?_ Was he _sick?_ Now that he thought about it, his parent did want him to go to this school all of a sudden, just a few days after him telling them he was gay. Did that make him sick? He knew they weren't fully understanding about his sexuality, considering the alternating silence and arguments since that day, but he assumed they would come around, right? Did that make him sick? Did they actually believe he needed _help?_ As if they could send him away and that would make him like girls? He couldn't believe what Jon was saying. It was ridiculous! Right? No way could everyone in this school have something different about them?

"You're lying." Alec's voice was croaky, as he was barely able to contain the thickness in his throat that was threatening to travel up to his eyes and release a river of emotion.

"And why would I do that, new boy? You think I want it to be true? You think I wouldn't give anything to make sure Clary was ok? Or that people treated us all as equals and not as some pathetic school of kids that no one cares about?" Jonathan's voice had gone deathly quiet now, and was walking towards the door to leave Clary sleep. Just before he passed Alec he lent into his ear and whispered,

"We're all mad here."


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi guys! I'm back after a few days again, and I am amazed with how many of you have favourited and followed this story! I am completely overwhelmed and so so grateful, so thank you! Last chapter, a few of you were a little confused on what was revealed, and to put it bluntly, Alicante is a school for kids to get 'treatment' because their parents think there is something wrong with them, or if their parents just want to send them out of the way. Obviously that is not the case for all children who attend, for instance, Alec is in Alicante for being gay, yet there is nothing wrong with being gay, but for the purpose of the story it is his parents opinion on his sexuality that leads to his attendance of Alicante. Hopefully as the story goes on, more will make sense, but if you have an questions feel free to ask or message me. For all you Alec lovers, this is a little treat for you, the chapter focuses on him a lot. Alec is one of my absolute favourites, he'd adorable! Let me know what you guys think, if you are still enjoying it, if you liked it/hated it (hopefully not but, you can't please everyone I guess..) REVIEW! and let me know your thoughts.**

 ***Disclaimer; Unfortunately, I still do not own the Mortal Instruments.**

The next day after the party seemed to be the least eventful, and most quiet. Many people had stayed over Jordan's instead of going home, and of course Jordan let them. The Saturday consisted of clusters of people just quietly talking to each other.

Jonathan and Clary would stay so close that strangers might have thought they were actual conjoined twins. If he left the room, so did she. If she needed the bathroom, he would patiently wait outside the door for her. The twins behaviour was usually odd in general, but today it seemed the whole house had kicked the weirdness up a notch.

The Lightwoods had also stayed over, and Isabelle and Simon were becoming pretty familiar with each other. They were consistently touching or whispering with small smiles on their faces. Their whispering was the happiest thing in the living room. Jace was still upstairs with Kaelie, doing who knows what. They hadn't come down yet, although neither had Maia and Jordan in the last two hours since everyone woke up.

Maia and Jordan had taken an instant liking towards the other. Once Jordan had began dancing with Maia, they didn't let each other's hands go the rest of the night. Not when one of the football players tried to dance with Maia, or even when some of the drama department started a limbo contest. They both just flexed their backs and shimmied under together. They were both happy, and Clary thought it was about time.

The last Lightwood however, was deathly quiet. No one had seen him speak so much as one word to anyone else in the house. He just sat their staring blankly at the wall, or occasionally gazed at people as though trying to figure each one out. Alec's mind just wasn't up to speed with Jon's confession. The only reason he was still in the house and not driving around somewhere was because his siblings needed a ride home. None of it made sense. If his parents did in fact send him away because he was gay, then why was his siblings here too? Did they have something going on that Alec didn't know about? He looked over to his sister who was cuddling with that scrawny rat boy -Simon, he remembered. Well, clearly his sister wasn't gay as well, and she didn't have medication to take so..

Alec's pondering got interrupted by a little redhead sitting carefully by him and resting her hand on top of his. Clary smiled softly, and even Alec could see how much of a lie her happy expression was. He squeezed her hand in reassurance, and no words were needed. Well, until Clary spoke to him.

"Alec, there isn't anything wrong with you. Sometimes the people we love do things because they are scared, but we mustn't hate them for it. They still love you, your parents. But you have a new family now. Us. And we will look after you." She spoke was a softness that melted Alec's heart. But a sort of anger fuelled him. She still lived with her parents, didn't she? They hadn't moved all the way across the state because their son wasn't normal. Her parents still spoke to her and cared for her. His didn't.

"My parents? They don't give a damn Clary! You have parents who would do anything for you, mine just sent me off because I'm not what they wanted. They don't care about me! The moment I said that I wasn't planning on dating girls they stopped wanting me. I should have seen it before but I didn't think anything was wrong with me. They stopped asking where I was going at night, didn't ask how my day at school was, and they were never there at breakfast anymore, always 'busy'. I mean, they haven't missed breakfast in three years and now all of a student they have plans at seven o'clock in the morning? They don't care.. oh my god, my parents don't even want me." Alec ended with his elbows in his knees and his head in his hands. He was mumbling under his breath words that Clary couldn't quite understand. She leaned forward and touched his back reassuringly. She couldn't stand to see someone filled with so much pain.

"Alec, listen to me. There is nothing wrong with you. You have people who love you, look around." She paused to scan the rest of the room, "this is just a small amount of how many people care about you. We need you Alec, we all do if we are going to get through life together. When you moved here I didn't think you could handle the truth about us, but you'll begin to understand that we are all the same. I know how you feel Ale-" Clary was sure she had finally gotten through to him and had calmed his confusion down when Alec interrupted her,

"No, you don't know how I'm feeling Clary. You don't know anything about me! So stop acting like you care!" Alec's outburst had caused the rest of the room to look on in astonishment. Clary was looking at Alec with guilty eyes and mumbled a fast apology before scurrying out of the room. Alec shouted after her and began to follow her before he was intercepted by Jon.

"Look, I think you've done enough for now. She was only trying to help, she can't stand to see someone upset. She really does care, too much about everyone if you ask me. So just leave it there, ok?" The way Jon spoke, warned Alec that there was no room for arguing.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it. I just can't get my head around all of this. Why? She needs to know I didn't mean to upset her Jon, please." Alec eyes was pleading with Jon, he didn't want to upset the one person who has been nothing but nice to him in this school.

"Fine. But two minutes tops. Otherwise I'm coming out there and dragging you back myself." Jon made little space for Alec to get past, but he nodded his head and sprinted to find the redhead.

Jon waited anxiously, and no longer than two minutes later the two had returned to the living room standing side by side, smiling to each other. Alec and Jonathan give a nod of satisfaction to each other, causing Clary to roll her eyes.

The twins and Alec were now sitting on a sofa, talking rather loudly about anything -although they avoided the topic of school. The twins were in the middle of re-telling an animate story about when Jon tried to impress a girl by diving in the pool, only to trip and belly flop instead.

Clary was already in a fit of giggles, as were the two boys when she couldn't get her words out, "and then-and then you-you h-h-had a red belly-f-f-for a-a WEEK!" Jon mock glared at Clary but couldn't help but grin when he saw that she was genuinely happy.

Just then, Jordan came diving on top of the twins, squeezing them into a hug so tight that Clary could just about breathe. They hadn't even heard him and Maia come downstairs. "Here's my favourite twins, how are you doing?"

Jon could just about contain his laughter, unlike Clary. "Jordan, we are the only twins you know!" The two boys were grinning at each other when Jordan suddenly leant into their ears and whispered seriously,

"Should I ask Maia to lunch or something? Or is that too forward? Do you think she even likes me? I mean she did dance with me all night, and then she stayed with me the night, but we were drunk, maybe she doesn't actually like me like that, you know? Mayb-" Jon stopped Jordan's self doubt and rambling and reassured him.

"Of course she likes you man, what's not to like? Now, go and ask her if she wants to meet up for lunch tomorrow at Taki's, ok? And I'll kick everyone out of the house."

"Really? Are you sure? Clary?" Jordan's wide eyes locked on Clary, asking if he should do this. The thing with Jordan was that he was very dependent on people. Just like his disorder states, Dependent Personality Disorder. He looks for guidance in people as he doesn't believe in himself. He lacks the confidence needed to make his own decisions, although the twins are trying to help him with it. I mean, he only threw the party because the whole football team said how much fun it would be, and after Clary assured him that a Jordan Kyle party would be amazing at least 6 times. So now, Clary smiled at Jordan and said,

"Yes, it'll be fun Jordan. Now shoo! And we'll still be here after everyone's gone." Jordan nodded and cooly sauntered over to Maia, while Jon rounded up the remaining people.

Clary watched from the hallway as people left the house without protest, and with a hug or wave on the way out. She was speaking to Alec while him and Isabelle were waiting for Jace so they could drive home, when a dash of golden hair hurried past them.

"Jace?" Alec called to the fast retreating boy.

"Aw Alec, didn't see you there. Clary, nice to see you not falling all over me, not that I minded," Jace added with a wink, causing Clary to blush slightly and him to grin even more. He then turned back to Alec as though he was in a rush, "Come on Al, it's time to go, I have some..things to do. Quick, hurry up, say goodbye to the nice lady." He rather abruptly ran the rest of the way to the car, and when Alec wasn't being fast enough honked the horn several times.

Clary covered her ears from the horrific noise and motioned for Alec to make him stop that murderous tune, especially now that Isabelle had decided to join in too.

"Sorry Clary, see you Monday?" Clary nodded and watched Alec jog to the car and scold his two siblings who were sticking their tongues out childishly at him.

When Clary returned to the living room Maia and Jordan had just finished saying goodbye and exchanging phone numbers, and so she said bye to her friend before carrying on through to the living room. When she got there she saw the best sight she could see. Jon and Jordan were sprawled out on the couches with popcorn and soda gathered into a messy pile, and the television was blaring brightly. She turned to the two boys and jumped in between them both as they questioned,

"Avengers?" with cheesy grins on their faces.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hiya guys, I'm back! Sorry I have been MIA for a while, if any of you even noticed/cared haha. Things have just been..** ** _different_** **for me the last couple of weeks. Yeah, I guess different is the word I'm going to stick with. But enough about my insignificant problems, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Here's a lil Clabestian love for you all, and all you Clace fans, I AM TEAM CLACE, but this story is a slow one in that department. I liked the idea of exploring all of the character developments, relating to a lot of each character myself. Sorry if this isn't everyone's cup of tea. Let me know your thoughts anyways, REVIEW! And enjoy..**

On Monday Clary was on the prowl. She was on the hunt for karma, and wasn't backing down. Kaelie was to her side, with red rimmed eyes covered in sunglasses. Yes, Clary was furious. But with herself more than the boy actually involved. It wasn't until Kaelie came sniffling down the stairs two hours into the twins and Jordan's movie marathon, that Clary knew she was still in the house.

Clary had immediately gone to comfort the girl and asked her to explain what was wrong. Apparently, Jace Herondale didn't know the meaning of being a respectable guy. He had told Kaelie that he had liked her, and after spending the night with each other _sexually_ , she woke up to him saying that he didn't think they would work out. And that didn't really sit right with Clary's view of a good universe. Especially if it would cause trouble within her own school. So, Clary and Kaelie met up with each other after Jon had walked her into school, and now they were trying to think of how to get even.

Kaelie had suggested that they break his heart just like he had broke hers. But Clary refused on the basis that they shouldn't interfere with love as it is hurtful. Kaelie mumbled something along the lines that she was hurting, but chose to accept Clary's way because she knew she wasn't going to back down from it.

"So, what are we going to do?"

"I don't know Kaelie, just give me some time to th- I got it! Round the cheerleaders up at lunch. We are going to do a little cheer for him." Clary innocently shrugged while Kaelie grinned and ran off. If the new boy thought he was an exception to the rules, then he doesn't know what he's in for.

* * *

By the time lunch had rolled around, Clary had already spoken to Jace in three classes. And right now you are probably thinking, _hrm a bit hypocritical?_ Am I right? I mean she is planning on humiliating him for payback so why is she acting so two faced? Well she isn't. You must understand that Clary's mind works on the thought that if the good acts and the bad acts are not balanced out then her world will come crashing to her feet. And so, when she was talking nicely to Jace in lessons about work and the party she wasn't thinking of how confused he will be after lunch, and she wasn't thinking how ridiculous he would find her 'mood swings'. Nope. She was just having a decent conversation with a fellow student. No more, no less. So when lunch came around there was a lot of chaos.

To put things shortly, Clary's plan went exactly how she thought it would go..almost. The cheerleaders had come in late to lunch, which was an anomaly itself, and silently got into position in front of Jace. Him being his cocky self smirked and winked at Clary, which she did not return and looked at him blankly.

If he was confused by the squads behaviour already, he was downright flabbergasted when they began to cheer about him. They sang it so rhythmically and sweetly that if you weren't listening to the words then it would have sounded like a song about rainbows and butterflies. But it wasn't. They sang about what he did, and sometimes how he did it -with the input of Kaelie - and ended with something along the lines of you can't play your own family.

By the end of the cheer, Jace was fuming. His cheeks were red from all that was insinuated, but mostly he was embarrassed by the redhead that was talking and laughing with him just twenty minutes ago, who was now staring at him as though he was a stranger. The whole hall was full of laughter, it echoing off the walls.

Jace stood there confused. _What kind of school is this?_ Who would even care about one night stands, everyone did them! He was the top player at his old school, everyone loved him, so what was so different here? He just didn't understand. And that is why instead of doing the most logical thing to do which was apologise, he stormed over to the 'leader' and grabbed her arm rather abruptly.

"What the hell, Red? What was that for? You think I deserved that? We were just talking twenty minutes ago, and now you humiliate me in front of everyone? I thought we were friends?"

Clary looked at him a little startled. Didn't he know that he had this coming? He needed to pay for the bad he caused. "Jace, this isn't my fault? You did this to yourself, you done something bad and you needed to pay."

"Pay Clary? For having sex with Kaelie?" Jace's words were cutting through her like venom because he was speaking so harshly. She could see how angry he was, and she noticed that everyone's eyes were on her. Everyone was looking at her, _what if I make a fool of myself?_ Her eyes kept darting around to everyone's stares, "Hrm? What.. Were you jealous that it was Kaelie in my bed and not you?"

"Wha-what? N-no! Of course not! It's just, this had to happen, Jace." Clary could feel her heart beating way too fast, where was Jon when she needed him? He was always there for her. Her whole being began to get heated, and she felt as though she needed to sit down..fast.

Luckily Simon interrupted the heated display soon enough. He placed his hand on Jace's chest and tucked Clary under his arm.

"That's enough. It's not her fault you acted like an ass. She was just helping a friend, leave her out of this. And don't ever touch her again, got it?" Simon sounded awfully scary but Clary was too busy trying to calm her breathing down to listen. _Was that thunder or my heart?_

"Or what, Lewis? This has nothing to do with you, so stay out of it. I would never hurt her."

"Just stay out of our way." Simon pushed past Jace and guided Clary out of the cafeteria, away from prying eyes.

* * *

When Jon found out about lunch he was furious, and didn't stop apologising about how he wasn't there, which infuriated Clary to no end. Did no one think she could handle herself? But then again, her stuttering and panicking at lunch hadn't done her argument any justice. Maybe she did need people.

But the rest of that school day Clary hadn't seen Jace, not even once. And she knew he was in her art class because he had sat in front of her last week. She concluded that he must of ditched the rest of school and worried about it no more. Instead she sat in her usual seat by Sebastian and drew 'whatever came to mind', which was an exercise that was supposed to help with their emotions.

Both Sebastian and Clary were good at drawing and didn't mind the comfortable silence between each other as they worked. In fact, they often met up at the park once they had finished sketching on their own some days. Clary had drawn yet another portrait, but this time she was surprised to see a golden angel, Jace. But behind her drawing of him, there was a darkness creeping behind him. A darkness that consumed his surroundings and was hidden behind a wall he has build to shield himself. Clary was puzzled. She wanted to find out what was up with him. She hadn't thought about why he had been put into the school, and usually she didn't mind not knowing. But there was something peculiar about this boy, and she was going to find out what it was.

"So, Clary.."

"Yes Seb?" They were walking out of class, like usual, to the parking lot.

"I was thinking that we could, you know, maybe go out sometime? If you wanted to. I mean you don't have to, I just thought that maybe we could give us a try? We have fun, and we are like best friends so maybe this is what was supposed to happen, you know?"

Clary was quite flattered. She never expected _Sebastian Verlac_ to get flustered over _her._ When she first arrived at the school, Sebastian was in a bad place and would avoid everyone. That was until Clary managed to trip over her own feet and would have face planted the floor if Seb hadn't caught her. Ever since, they kind of understood each other. So why not give them a try? He would be the first boy she properly dated.

"Sure Seb, that sounds great."

Sebastian grinned at her. "Brill, I'll text you about it. Saturday ok?" He gave her a quick hug before dashing off to his own car in high spirits. Clary had her own grin on her face, which didn't go unnoticed by Jon as she got in the car.

"What's got you so smiley Miss Morgenstern?" Jon asked suspiciously.

"Whatever do you mean, Master Morgenstern? I know that it couldn't possibly be because I have a date this Saturday. Or no, definitely not that." As Clary's grin got bigger, Jon's mouth turned into a frown.

"A date? With who? When? Where?" He started to interrogate her, not that she cared, she was too excited about her first date.

"With Seb, Jon. So calm down, I've been out with him plenty of times before and look, here I am. Safe and sound." She dramatically swished her arms in hopes of earning a smile. Her wish was smashed. Jon had a scowl etched to his lips.

"Verlac? _Verlac_ asked you?" Jon spat his name like a disease.

"God Jon, he's like my best friend. Why are you getting so nasty? We are just seeing how things go." Jon tried to calm down and they began to drive off home. Not before Jon muttered 'things won't be going anyway", which Clary chose to ignore.

Although, she couldn't ignore him for long because there was one extra car in the driveway. The twins grinned at each other when they recognised the car and shoved the other aside to get in the house first. The both ploughed into a six foot body with brown hair and a stubbly beard. He turned to the twins and they both screamed in joy. 1. Because they would be able to have the rest of the week off school. And 2. Because their favourite non-blood uncle was standing right in front of them.

"LUKE!"


	13. Chapter 13

**Hiya guys *sheepishly doesn't look any of you in the eye*..Sorry I've been out of action for a long while but things have changed recently. I've moved away to university the past few months, I've been to the hospital god knows how many times, and my mental health is qutie possibly rapidly declining. But due to recent reviews I thought I owed it to you to at least post one chapter over Christmas (a Christmas miracle) before I become stressed and crazy with revision and exams (uni is not all drinking and napping let me tell you). I hope you enjoy this chapter, it isn't a filler chapter but not a full storyline chapter, and there is a little mystery at the end..who said it? Anyways, on with the chapter..all your feedback is appreciated to much so thank you thank you thank you! Don't forget to review please!..**

The twins hadn't been in the rest of the week, and the Lightwoods were a bit puzzled by the schools behaviour. Alec still hadn't told his siblings the.. _arrangement.._ of the school. He was afraid that they would think there was something wrong with them and maybe freak out about it, or worse, they would blame him for bringing them to this strange school. He just couldn't bring himself to bring the topic up, even though he had had plenty of chances to. Like yesterday at dinner when Isabelle asked why Mom and Dad wasn't there again for food, Alec had the perfect opportunity to slip in that their parents thought he was disgusting, but he didn't. And this morning, Jace had actually muttered the words _'This school is weird. What do you think is up with it?'_ to Alec's face. I mean, was there an easier opening question to Alec's confession? I don't think so. Yet he kept his mouth shut and mumbled ' _Yeah, it's different'._ Come on! Different may be a little bit of an exaggeration. But still his twin sister and his adopted brother were none the wiser.

Yes, the twins were galavanting with their favourite uncle that only visited them once a year for a few days, as he was in the Army and lived in Australia. But this time, Luke Garroway was staying in Brooklyn for the next few months. In fact, he had given up the Army and had been training as a specialist teacher for the last year. He had been offered a job in Alicante High and started on Monday. At first the twins were ecstatic because they got to see him everyday, but then once the realisation of what he said sunk in they pulled back out of the three people embrace.

"Monday? You're starting _Monday?_ " Jonathan questioned.

"Yes guys, and before you complain I'm not going to be one of those annoying teachers. You will love me. I'm down with the kids, lol." The way Luke spoke made it clear that he was not 'down with the kids', but Luke being a teacher wasn't what the siblings were scared about it was what he would be _teaching_.

"No, no, I'm sure you'll be great Luke. Except for the fact that no one ever wants to _go_ to your lessons. Why? _Monday? Really?"_ Clary refused to acknowledge the fact that no matter how many times she said it, it would still be happening.

Seeing the pits of despair their children had just turned into, Jocelyn and Valentine questioned everyone, "What's wrong with Luke teaching Monday? Clary you love school, Luke will just make it more fun for you!"

Oh how wrong Valentine Morgenstern was though, not that he would ever admit it. Jon blurted out what they were both thinking. "Evaluation day, though! It's horrible, AND EMBARRASSING!" Clary was nodding vigorously next to her brother.

They hated evaluation day. It was supposed to be a day where you were split into groups and spoke about how your year has been so far. What you were feeling, how you think you are coping, blah blah blah. They make you do trust exercises with others and ask stupid questions like, _'how are you feeling today Clary? Have your thoughts been kind to you?"_ She just wanted them to shut up and asked what they really wanted to know. Had she been s-

" _Jonathan!"_ Their mother chided. "You know that day helps a lot of children in the school. They are only trying to help you. Now, no more talk about this evaluation day, I've made pizza so come on, let's not start the week off with arguments ok?"

The four mumbled guilty 'ok's, even the two grown men looked like they had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. And evaluation day was not brought up the rest of the week between the grown ups, or the twins -no matter how much they wanted to moan about it. The week off was filled with family meals, day outs, and just messing around. Usually when Jon and Luke were talking or laughing, Clary would sit and sketch them, as she felt the need to capture the beauty of happiness on paper. Yes, so the four days away from school was only filled with joy, they were not allowed to worry about _anything,_ which included _'the day that must not be named'_ as Luke so kindly put it. In fact, the only time any of them spoke about it all week was when Clary and Sebastian went out on their date on Saturday.

Their date was perfect..well almost. It would have been if it wasn't interrupted. Sebastian had taken Clary to see a movie, the new Marvel movie, which they both adored. Sebastian was the perfect gentleman, he held the doors for her, paid for her ticket, and even drove her around in his dad's porches. After the movie, they agreed to go to the local diner for dinner, Taki's. They talked and chatted in their little booth, enjoying each other's company more than they ever expected they would.

Sebastian was telling Clary that nothing happened in school, except the new kids were asking where her and Jon was. The rest of the school knew that if the twins were suddenly off school for a week then it meant their uncle was visiting so no one really batted an eyelid at their disappearance. He had told her that the rest of the week had been boring without her, which had made her blush a little. Sebastian was just about finished with Mrs Fairchilds conversation with Jace's drawing in art class yesterday. Apparently she had said to draw something dangerous, and Jace had drawn some ducks. She had started to argue that he didn't understand the assignment, and he had argued back saying she didn't understand how vicious ducks were. Sebastian said the whole encounter was hilarious, that Jace was adamant that ducks were not to be trusted, something about Will and him in the park when they were younger. Anyway, by the end of his little recap they were both giggling and Clary felt so happy to actually be having fun, without Jon for that matter. Well until she cut off her laughter when a certain trio walked through the door.

"No freaking way. I can't believe he did this. I'm going to kill him!" Clary was fuming, and Sebastian looked quite alarmed. Who could have possibly-

"Jonathan?"

Jon turned around at the sound of his name. He looked shocked that he had encountered the pair on such a coincidence, but Clary knew better. She saw the way he had purposely not looked in their direction when he entered, and how he is scrutinising Sebastian's hand holding Clary's across the table.

"Clary? Seb? What a surprise! I didn't know you two were here on your _date."_ Just at that moment the two other asshats wondered over to nose who Jon was speaking to. _Great,_ Clary thought, _just great._ Not only was her brother here but so was the new boy she had yet to figure out, and Jordan -who was no doubt going to sit by them once he finally recognised them.

"Seb! Hey man, how you doing? Have you ordered yet, I'm starved! Jon told me we were going out for food tonight so I haven't ate in like an hour!" Jordan had then squished up next to Seb and was babbling to him about who-knows-what. Jonathan gave Clary a shrug as if to say ' _what can you do?'_ and sat down next to his sister, followed by Jace.

"So, any special reason why you wanted dinner out, Jonathan? I mean, I know you couldn't possibly have come here just because you knew me and Seb were going to be on our date, could you?" Clary blinked innocently at Jon, while the whole table was now staring at them.

"What? Was that tonight?! It..completely slipped my mind. Um no, of course not, I wouldn't do that to you, Clary. Me and Jordan just..wanted to..to show Jace our favourite diner. You know the food is like heaven in here, so who am I to keep him in the dark about this place?" Jon was smiling sweetly back at her, knowing she couldn't argue with his obvious bullshit. The food after all _was_ to die for. So Clary let it go with a scowl in his direction before turning back to Sebastian to at least attempt to finished the night on a high. They were just about to begin a discussion on their newest sketches when Jordan piped up.

"Seb, did Clary tell you about Monday? Sucks right, I _hate_ evaluation day! But at least, we are always put all together, right?" Jordan was grinning, totally oblivious to the bombshell he had just dropped on Sebastian _and Jace_.

Everyone's faces held a different expression. Jordan was grinning, Clary was horrified, Jon was speechless, Sebastian looked like he wanted to curl up in a ball and drift away, and Jace looked extremely confused.

" _No Jordan,_ I hadn't mentioned that yet, not wanting to ruin the night and all." Clary spoke with slight harshness that made Jordan's eyes pop wide open and turn a light pink.

" _Monday?_ But we just had one before Christmas?" Sebastian questioned just as Jace spoke up and said,

"What's evaluation day?"

Everyone looked at him horrified. They had completely forgot that he was here, he hadn't spoken a single word after all, not even a greeting. But after getting over their initial shock of his presence, they began opening and closing their mouths not uttering a single noise. What were they supposed to say? They couldn't tell him in the middle of a diner? They would probably all get banned from there because of his reaction, and then where would they eat?

They all stayed silent and Jace grew angry. "What, another one of your _'precious secrets'_ is it?" He spat the words at them, making Clary flinch slightly. "Tell me."

"Look Jace, not here. I assumed Alec would have filled you in by now but, obviously not. This isn't the place to find out about our 'precious secrets' ok?" Jonathan spoke in a calm authoritative voice, clearly trying to make Jace let the subject go. But Jace wouldn't stop.

"No. I go there now, too. I'm the same as you, I'm one of you. Clary, aren't you always talking about family? Well I'm family now, so tell me. What don't I know?" Jace pleaded with Clary, but she couldn't get any words out of her mouth. What was she supposed to say, that she was messed up? That they were all messed up? That the girl he shagged the other day makes herself sick after every meal? That the boy sitting across from her tried to kill himself? Those weren't her secrets to tell. But he _was_ family now, Clary deliberated. She could trust him, she had to trust him. The only thing she could tell him was about herself, but she didn't know if she was ready to admit it to someone she barely knew yet. But time was running out and she had to say something. Jace's tawny golden eyes were locked with hers and her emerald ones were falling deeper into his trap. She could trust him. She could trust him. She could trust him.

"I have-"

"Schizophrenia."


	14. Chapter 14

**Hi guys..I know I have been gone forever, I'm sorry, I've just started a new chapter in my life, and a lot of things have changed, lots in a good way, but obviously you can't have all good and no ugly! Anyway, enough about me, thank you for everyone who has followed and favourited this story, I really appreciate it! Here is the next chapter, please let me know what you think, so REVIEW, FAV, FOLLOW! On with the chapter..**

 _"Jonathan!"_

"What? You have..What?" Jace stumbled over his words, not able to form a sentence as his mind was still trying to process what Jon blurted out.

Clary was looking at Jon with a mixture of relief and concern. He didn't really go around promoting his illness, most of the school still don't know why Jonathan is actually in Alicante High. They just assume that he is there to support Clary and that's the end of their thoughts. But only a few students actually know about Jon and they are his closest friends, so it was a surprise to all parties involved that Jon just told a boy he had known for not even two weeks.

"Why did you do that, Jon?" Clary whispered to her twin, while Jordan and Sebastian awkwardly looked between the three.

Jon turned to Clary, his face softening, "Because I knew you weren't ready to tell your secret. It's ok Clary, what's the worst that can happen, he will call me crazy?" Jon gave a scoff at the end, but Clary wasn't convinced that Jon had made the best decision.

Jace sat there looking between the twins, his face pale. His mouth kept opening and closing as if he wanted to say something but he didn't know what. I mean, what can you say when you basically just bullied someone into telling you they're crazy. No, not crazy but..

"Schizophrenia?" Jonathan nodded. Jace tried to nod back, but his head felt fuzzy. The waitress chose that exact moment to break the five silent teens and Clary couldn't be more thankful.

"Two burgers and fries for..Oh I didn't realise you were waiting for your friends. Do you guys want anything?" The waitress gave puzzled looks to all the teenagers.

"No thank you, can we just have the bill please. Something has come up. I'm so sorry to waste your time." Clary asked politely and the waitress nodded before turning to grab their cheque.

"So..are you..like ok?" Everyone turned to Jace who was looking at Jon with concern whilst fidgeting with the napkin on the table.

Jon gave out a chuckle. "Yeah man, I haven't had a spell in over two years -touch wood." Jon banged the table with his knuckles in an attempt to lighten the mood. To say he failed was an understatement. Clary frowned in disapproval at his making light of his situation, and the other three boys watched in silence.

"Two years, huh? What happened?" Jace's voice was almost inaudible.

Jon looked away, ashamed, and Clary squeezed his hand. "It's ok Jon, I know you didn't mean for it to happen. It's ok. We're ok." She smiled weakly at him. She knew that it wasn't his fault what happened, but it still shook her up even now while Jon was saying it.

" _We were both 15, our birthday was just last week, and for a while I had been feeling..different..not like myself. I didn't want to do anything, I dropped out of football and soccer and I didn't really talk to anyone anymore, not even Clary._

 _The first time I heard them I thought I was just imagining it. I mean, no one was in the room so obviously no one was speaking to me, right? So I brushed it off and blamed it on the lack of sleep I had been getting. But then it happened again, only this time Clary was in the room. So I obviously assumed it was her but when I asked her she just looked at me funny and told me to go to sleep or something. It started happening quite frequently then. At school. At home. Even when I was walking down the street._

 _I thought it was Clary telling me things. Now, obviously I know she would never say such awful things, but back then I couldn't understand who else it could be. I became paranoid. I was scared that Clary was planning to do something to me. The voices would always tell me things, dreadful things, and naturally I assumed that Clary was planning something._

 _It was two weeks later when I-I.."_

Jon broke off and placed his head in his hands shaking his head. "God I'm so sorry Clary. I'm sorry." Jon collapsed into Clary's lap and began shaking, sobs escaping now and again. Clary held him tightly and mumbled reassurances in his ear. She stroked his hair until he calmed down and told Jordan to take him to the toilet so he could wash his face. The two boys walked off and Clary resumed telling Jace the story.

 _"It was a Wednesday and sunny and I persuaded Jon to play in the garden. Yeah, we were fifteen but Jon wasn't acting himself and I thought if we played like we used to as kids then he would come back to me._

 _So we were messing around, and every now and again Jon kept shouting at me, telling me to 'Be quiet!' and how he 'Didn't want to do that'. I just assumed that he thought we were being childish. I told him we should play cops and robbers. Me being the cop and I could catch him. So we were playing the game, laughing just like we did as kids. Until I caught him._

 _Me and Jon were always rough when we played games, and so I tackled him to the ground. I expected for him to laugh it off but he was breathing heavily and I thought I had hurt him or something. I asked him what was wrong and he flipped. He had pinned me down and was spouting all kinds of rubbish._

 _He told me that I wasn't going to get away with what I was doing. He said if I didn't stop it, he was going to have to..stop me himself. I didn't know what he was on about. He was scaring me and I started crying. Jon was rambling on about how I was telling him to do things that he didn't want to do, like how he tripped a kid in his year the other day, and when he popped the baby across the street's balloon last week._

 _I told him he wasn't acting like Jon, and it wasn't me telling him to do stuff. I shouted to go away. I still don't know who I was shouting it to. Jon, the voices. I just wanted my brother back._

 _Mom came then to see what all the fuss was about. And she shouted at Jon to leave me alone. But once he got off me he started yelling at Mom. He started to pace and told us that people were telling him things. Bad things. And then he kind of broke down, it was horrible. He was a mess. I never ever want to see him like that again."_

Clary sighed deeply and wiped away the tear that had escaped down her face. Sebastian was holding onto Clary's hand with a tight grip, which she was thankful for. And Jace.. Jace was staring at Clary with a new found respect and interest. Although, he was a bit confused on why Jon was so sorry to Clary. Yes, he pinned her down and basically accused her of planning to destroy his life, but he hadn't _hurt_ her.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention this to anyone else, or bring it up to Jon for that matter. He's been ok for nearly two years now and I really don't want anything to trigger him back." Clary spoke softly, her eyes shining the way they do only when she speaks about something she loves. Jace could only nod his head.

Clary thanked the Angel that Jace believed her story, although most of it was the truth, the ending was a little different. But Clary didn't want to scare Jace off if he found out that she ended up in hospital for three days. She thought back to that day once again and shivered at the memory of Jon's remorseless eyes as his fingers wrapped tightly around her throat. Her mother had come out shortly after Clary had blacked out apparently, her mother had told her the news of Jon's mental health once she woke up in the hospital two hours later. Damaged vocal cords kept her from comforting Jon's endless apologising and sobbing, so she had had to deal with huddling up in her hospital bed with him, giving gentle smiles and reassuring hugs. Clary knew how awful Jon feels about that day, but its not as though he could have stopped it, she understood it wasn't his fault. But nonetheless, she still felt her protectiveness to shield him from anyone who may put fault on him by retelling the story with a much..lighter ending.

Jon and Jordan came back laughing and it was as if the past five minutes had never happened. Well, except for the three teenagers in the booth looking at Jon was pitiful expressions.

"Hey, come on guys don't look at me like that. You know I am still the hottest guy here." He motioned to himself but only succeeding in getting a small scoff out of Jordan. Jonathan got a little angry at this. He wasn't the one who had tried to kill himself. He wasn't the one who depended on everyone to make his decisions. He wasn't the one who is fragile and needs to be taken care of. He knew he shouldn't say anything out loud, and risk upsetting his friends but he couldn't stop himself. He flipped, "Stop it. We all know I'm not the one who needs the pitiful looks. Huh Seb? Do you want me to coddle you every time we walk past a piece of rope? Or what about you Jordan? What if I left you? Could you do anything by yourself? Clary, how about you show Jace your scars. I bet you all won't feel sorry for me then, will you!?"

Jon froze once he realised what he had said. Obviously he didn't mean for any of it to come out, but he was angry. Clary was the most affected. Her whole face was pale and she had froze in her seat. Jon went to reach out for her but she flinched away, ignoring the hurt expression on his face.

"Clary, I-I didn't mean for that to come out. It's just..God why am I so stupid. I'm sorry. Seb, Jordan, I didn't mean to say that. You know I wouldn't know what to do without you guys and I don't judge you. I need you. Please Clary, I'm sorry." Clary turned to see Jon's face. Tears were brimming in the bottom of his eyes, ready to spill over. She knew that the memory of that day had put him on edge. She smiled weakly at him and he side hugged her with a little too much strength, causing her to complain and then him squeezing her even more tightly. The two boys chuckled at the twins behaviour, forgetting about the conversation that happened not two minutes ago.

"So..what? You are all messed up? Is this some kind of sick joke? Because it's not funny."

The four had forgotten that Jace was there, sitting at the end of the booth. They all looked at him and wondered how they should break the news. Hopefully he would take it well, but somehow they didn't think he would be as level-headed as Alec was.

"Let's all go back to our house. I think we'll need a private place for this." And so they left for the twins house with Jace silently in the back seat of Jon's car after saying goodbye to Sebastian and Jordan. The twins knew this was going to be a hard conversation, but maybe they'll finally get some answers.


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi guys, sorry for the inconsistent updates and chapters (if there is anyone still wanting to read this story at all). I thought I would upload this as a procrastination technique from uni exam revision. Anyways, you aren't interested in my life, let me know your thoughts/feelings about this chapter, or what you think is going to happen, so FAV, FOLLOW, REVIEW; read on..**

Well answers the twins didn't get. Shouting and swearing? Yes. But information that would help unravel that who is Jace Herondale they did not get. Once the twins had led Jace to their living room he demanded they tell him what the hell was going on. They told him to sit, he didn't. They told him the truth, he didn't believe them. Clary did get quite frustrated. As if she would lie about something like this. He started yelling, accusing them of being messed up. Nothing was wrong with him or his family and that they didn't belong in this messed up school. He then proceeded to storm out too who knows where because he didn't have a car. Although, Clary did text Alec to make sure someone was looking out for Jace. He informed her that he had come home and they were about to have a family meeting, and that was the end of all conversations between them.

In school Monday, everyone who knew about evaluation day had glum faces and grim expressions. Evaluation day was mandatory and always dragged on for what felt like years. Although, the twins did find out that Luke wasn't actually running any of _their_ sessions, which made Clary sigh a little in relief. The Lightwoods and Jace looked particularly worse for wear though. Isabelle lacked her usually bounce and Jace lacked his cocky confidence. They both looked like they hadn't slept all weekend, and were obviously not speaking to Alec for some reason. But, _coincidently_ , the twins, the Lightwoods, Jace, Simon, Sebastian, Maia and Jordan were all in the same group for the whole day, along with a few others.

Their first 'activity' was sitting in a big circle on chairs, as a 'bonding session'. Clary thought these evaluation days just get worse and worse each year. They were supposed to come clean to any actions they have done that they regret recently. Obviously no one was going to speak. Who wanted to tell their bad decisions to their whole class? Especially if Clarissa Morgenstern was listening. But even so, some people mumbled quick half-hearted confessions under their breath. Some about lying, cheating, relapsing in some cases.

There was a particular silence when Kaelie had confessed that she had purged on the weekend for the first time in two months. Clary was the one to comfort her, _obviously,_ she just couldn't help herself. No one really felt like speaking much then and their 'team leader' started to grow agitated.

"Come on guys, this day is to help you! I'm not sitting here just to watch you all breathe. Now, some one speak up. You aren't all angels." He muttered the last bit under his breath, but they all still heard him. Still, no one broke the silence. But before the teacher, who was by far the least compassionate man to ever live, could shout again Jace spoke up. It was barely above a mumble but loudly spoken through the silence.

"I regret insulting the people who were only trying to help me."

He hadn't made eye contact with anyone but the twins knew it was aimed at them. It provoked Clary to speak up. Her confession made Jace snap his head up to her.

"I regret not going after someone who was hurting." She hadn't meant to say it, she had just wanted to show him that she acknowledged his apology and she accepted it. They locked eyes and Clary felt.. _different._ Like she wanted his acceptance of her, more than anyone else in the room. She brushed it off, surely it was just because they had a sort of moment, right?

She was the first to look away, afraid of what she might do, let alone _feel,_ if she were to look into his golden eyes any longer. The bell rang moments later and she grabbed her bag and walked out with Jon and Simon to her sides. They had all totally forgotten about their next period. The worst part of the day. Their council meeting.

Clary felt like she was going to be sick, Simon looked like he had just thrown up, and Jon..well he looked normal, maybe with a hint of boredom in his features. It's not like he had anything to worry about anyway. He was doing fine.

Clary was wishing for her name to be called in the second group, meaning her counselling wouldn't be for another hour, and her prayers were answered, giving her an extra hour to freak out over this stupid meeting. Surprisingly, Jonathan was roped into the first group along with Sebastian, Alec and Isabelle, leaving Clary with Simon to wander around the school. They both looked paler than normal, and usually Clary would mention it to Simon, but today she knew what his worried expression meant. He had been using again, and recently by the sweat beading on his head. But Clary was too panicked about her own meeting, everyone thought she was fine, better even, they didn't know..they don't know she..

"Uh-Si, I'm going to run to the toilets, I'll meet you before counselling yeah?" The sentence stumbled out of her mouth, and Simon numbly nodded his head.

Before she turned to leave him, she sighed and placed a gentle hand on his arm, "It's going to be ok Si, just tell them the truth. I'm here for you, just call me if you need me. For anything, ok?" She kept eye contact until Simon reluctantly nodded his had and muttered a 'thank you' in reply, and then she turned away.

She was panicking. What was she supposed to do? Lie? No no no, they'd find out, she's been lying this whole year with her perfect smile and her fake laugh, today they'll find out the truth. _I can't have them look at me like that. Not again. They'll think I'm pathetic, more than they already think._ Clary began to feel out of breath, as if all the air had been sucked out of the world. She couldn't break down in the middle of the hallway, so she fumbled into the nearest room which just so happened to be the music room.

She collapsed against the door with the last of her energy and a strangled sod escaped her throat. She pressed her fist against her mouth and willed the tears to stop streaming down her face. If they could see she had been crying then they'd definitely know something was wrong. Clary pulled the sleeves of her jacket down and wrapped them around her tightly, making herself as small as possible, and let the dark thoughts take over.

Clary didn't know how long she sat there. She didn't know how long it took her tears to run out and for the empty feeling in her body to take over. She didn't know how long the blonde boy had been silently watching her for, and it wasn't until he stepped into her view that she sprang up from her spot and hastily wiped away the tear streaks from her face.

"Uh-Hey Jace, what are you doing here?" She produced a weak smile, that not even she believed.

Jace frowned. "No, no, you can't do that. I saw you, I _heard_ you. You can't just put your wall back up and pretend that didn't happen."

"What didn't happen?" Clary returned.

" _No Clary._ This isn't one of your games. You just basically collapsed onto the floor and cried your heart out. You're in pain. And I want to know why." He folded his arms across his chest and glowered at her stubbornly.

"Thanks for your concern, Jace, but you don't have to worry about me. Y-you wouldn't understand anyway, nobody does." She mumbled the last part of her sentence not knowing that Jace could still hear her.

" _Please_ Clary, I want to help. I feel terrible about how I blew up at you and Jon. I really want to be friends. And friends help each other, right?" Jace used his charm that would normally let him get whatever he wants, but with Clarissa Morgenstern nothing was normal.

"You don't really want to be friends, Jace! You just want to know how messed up I am like everybody else at this damned school! You want me to tell you all my dirty little secrets so you don't feel so bad about yourself. Well if you knew my screwed up pathetic life Jace you wouldn't be able to even look at me, let alone want to be my _friend_. I'm disgusting. And I deserve everything I get. So if you know what's best for you, you'd stay away from me. Before I drag you down too." When her fiery speech ended, she span away and was about to leave a silent Jace, until he spoke up.

"My dad used to hit me." Jace's confession made Clary halt in her tracks. She turned to face Jace only to find his golden orbs looking into hers, as if he was searching for any hint of disgust. She softly padded over and sat beside him on the edge of the mini stage.

"I'm sorry you're hurting." Clary's look was on of worry and support instead of the usual pitying gaze that Jace was so used to when people found out. It was comforting but also frightening. Jace coughed to clear the tightness in his throat.

"It's not your fault. It was a long time ago-before the Lightwoods adopted me. My dad had..something wrong with him. An illness. He didn't know what he was doing, but I was too afraid to notice there was anything wrong with him. God, I was so _stupid!_ Of course my dad would never want to hurt me, so why didn't I realise that he wasn't himself? It started getting especially bad after my mom died. A drunk driver smashed right into her, and she died instantly.

Before my mom died, my dad wasn't that bad. My mom must have known about him because she would always brush his hurtful comments off, or whenever he touched us with a little more force than necessary she would make excuses, telling me he didn't mean it or that it wasn't his fault. At the time, I was furious. I mean, my mom was making excuses for my dad _hurting_ us. That's not right. Nothing about the situation was right! But now.. Oh God now, I just wish I could have realised enough to help him."

Jace looked at Clary and his face made her want to crumple into a ball. He was heartbroken. "He needed help, Clary. And I didn't see it."

"Jace, it's not your fau-"

"IT WAS MY FAULT, CLARY! If I hadn't been such an ignorant prick who just wanted to be popular then maybe I would have seen that my dad had schizophrenia! Freaking schizophrenia, Clary! Maybe I could have helped him, and he wouldn't be dead right now! Maybe he would have a son that he was actually proud of and doesn't mess everything up!" Jace's voice boomed and echoed around the room, but Clary didn't flinch at his tone. She knew he needed to let this story out, tell someone. And she was honoured that he trusted her enough, even if they had only really known each other for three weeks. Jace was heaving from his outburst and started pacing to release some of his energy.

Clary slowly got up and placed a gently hand on his arm. Jace froze under her touch and turned towards her curiously. She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his chest comfortably. Jace returned the gesture after a moments hesitation, and melted into the redhead.

"It's not your fault, Jace. I understand how you feel. I couldn't believe how oblivious I was to Jon's actions either. It crushed me. Sometimes it still gets to me, how bad of a person must I be to not even see that my own brother was not himself? But Jace, it wasn't your fault. Your parents loved you, and your moms right, your dad didn't mean to hurt you, schizophrenia makes people do all sorts of crazy things. It can make the nicest people do the most cruel things, it can make them hurt the people they love the most. But we can't blame them. It wasn't their fault. It's not anyone's fault. Things happen for a reason, and we need to accept them. I'm sorry for your parents, Jace. But they would be proud of you. I'm proud of you." Clary smiled up to him through unshed tears and finally released him from her grasp.

"You're proud of me? For what? I haven't done anything but be horrible to you?" Jace questioned.

"Jace, you opened up to someone. That's something I haven't done in the three years I've been here, let alone the three weeks you have. Yeah, you may have an ego that just about fits into your pretty little head but.." She sighed and smiled up at him, "You aren't the monster you make yourself out to be, Jace. Remember that."

"You think my heads pretty?" Jace smirked and Clary groaned in return. She knew this was his way of changing the subject, and she let him, God knows she's wanted to change the subject of her conversations thousands of times.

"I should have known that's what you would have remembered from what I said. Your ego doesn't need any more inflating!" Clary laughed.

"Hey, you don't need to excuse yourself. I know you couldn't resist these stunningly attractive looks." He motioned to his body and twirled for emphasis, making Clary giggle and Jace grin.

"Oh please, I couldn't stop myself from helping a damsel in distress." She winked cheekily and sauntered out of the room. She was halfway down the hallway when she heard a distinct yell,

"I'm not a woman!" Her loud laugh drowned out the thundering footsteps trying to catch up to her.


	16. Chapter 16

**Hi hi guys, I know its been a little while for you all, but I thought I would update the eve of my birthday as I'm in a very upbeat mood! Thank you for all the lovely reviews and support, it honestly means so much to me and motivates me even more! Just to prewarn you, this story is an unusual one in the sense that it doesn't have a begininning exciting middle and end, there is are several gradual underlying storylines that kind of all fit together, it probably can be a little confusing but when writing it I was first using it as a way to express myself and deal with my thoughts so it was kind of never ending. ANYWAYS, enough of me, hope you enjoy the chapter, let me know what you think; REVIEW, fav, follow! X**

After Jace had caught up to Clary they wondered back towards where their counselling sessions would be. With each step closer Clary's heart beat increased. She could barely hear Jace's sarcastic comments over the sound of her own heart beating. She was panicking. She couldn't do this. Her breathing started to become heavier as she attempted to calm herself down.

"Clary, hey, look at me. Are you ok?" Jace met Clary's eyes with a worried expression. She shook her head and had to lean her body against a nearby locker to gain her balance. As Jace went to reach out for her, a fist shoved him away.

"What have you done, Herondale?" Simon had suddenly appeared. He turned to Clary and lowered his voice to a soothing tone. "Clary, can you hear me? Just breathe, ok? Look, watch me. In...Out...In...Out...good, that's it." He hugged Clary and her breaths started to come out more evenly than before.

"I-I don't want to go in there, Simon..I can't..I..I..I'm so sorry." She whispered, her shoulders slumped forward and her eyes trailed on her feet. Simon squeezed her comfortingly,

"It's ok, Clary. Everything is going to be fine, remember? I promise. We are both going to be fine. None of this really matters anyway, does it? It's just school. Just life. You need to chill out and enjoy it while we can. Do whatever we like when we like. The world is our oyster, Fray." Her head snapped up at the nickname he used to use for her when she first arrived at the school. The nickname was made by Simon after he referred to her as a rope that's unravelling. How her mind was a lot messier than she led people to believe, and soon she was going to 'fray'. He thought he was pretty clever at the time, and when he found out that Fray was Clary's mothers maiden name, he thought he was damn right genius. Although he hadn't used the nickname in a while as he thought that Clary was in fact better, and her mind wasn't as 'frayed' as it used to be. But hearing the name drawling out of his mouth with his sloppy grin made her feel foolish. Maybe she hadn't been that good at masking her thoughts, how did she think that she ever could? How stupid of her.

But when Clary's head snapped up, she only then realised how wide his eyes were and the red rim around them. And how much energy he suddenly had. She gasped and placed her hands on either side of his face, examining him.

"Simon! Are you high?" Clary screeched and searched his face for any signs of the normal Simon. She found none.

"Of course not, Clary! You really think I'd smoke a joint in school? Pur-lease. At least give me some credit, I'm not going to leave any evidence around. But if you asked me about the excess white powder being washed away by the sink in the boys toilets..then I may have some answers for you." He wiggle his ridiculously thin eyebrows at her with a ridiculous grin on his face as if this situation was the most funniest thing in the world. Clary, surprisingly, did not agree.

"Shit! Simon! Right..um I need to get you out of here, they can't see you like this. Did you drive to school today, Si?" She was frantically trying to come up with an escape plan for them both, or at least an hour or so for Simon to come down from his high.

"Nope. Why? Did you want to go somewhere? A party? Aw man, I so could go to a party right now. Hey Clary, let's make our own party. Remember the ones we used to have when you first moved? God they were fun. Maybe we can snag some vodka and it would be like old times, yeah?" Simon was rambling and getting more giddier the longer he was talking.

"No Si, you're not in that place anymore, remember? We stopped. We promised. You promised, goddammit. Right, come on we need to leave, like now!" Clary pulled on Simon's arm and he giddily slung his arm over her shoulder. They were power walking towards the main doors of the school, when Jace called out to her. She had totally forgotten about his presence..again.

"Where are you going? You're both going to miss counselling?"

"Look Jace, could you just say you haven't seen us please? I know it's a lot to ask but, I'll make it up to you I promise." Clary pleaded with him. She cursed herself for Simon's actions. How could she have left him by himself when she knew he was worried about his session? She would surely pay for being such a bad friend later, she knew.

Jace searched her desperate eyes before shrugging and walking towards her. "Why don't I just help you sort _him_ out instead? It's better than that ridiculous _counselling_ anyway, so? Win, win, right?" He gave her a small smile. One she did not return.

"NO! You can't come, Jace. You _need_ ****to go to your session. I can't let you miss it. I can handle this. Please just..stay here. _Please._ " Her hands were out in front of her as if she was begging him to stay-which, quite frankly, she was. Her and Simon would have enough punishment and embarrassment if they didn't turn up for their session, and she wasn't about to drag Jace into the equation too. His session may even help him open up or feel better about himself, or whatever those sessions are supposed to do for them. And she wasn't about to let him throw his away if she had anything to do with it- which she did.

"Why? What's so important about this session? You are going to miss yours, why is mine any different? What is going to happen if I don't go? They can't do anything." He smirked in her face, thinking she would admit that the only reason she didn't want him to miss it was because she cared for him. Clary fought the urge to roll her eyes. He was so oblivious to everything.

"Can't _do_ anything, Jace?! They can _do_ whatever the hell they like! And who would you go to if they did something you didn't like? Hm?" Just as Jace was about to reply with the smart answer of his adopted parents, she cut in, "Don't forget who sent you here in the first place, Jace."

Her flaming eyes bore into his confused ones. "Have you missed one of these before? The sessions, I mean." She nodded her head sadly and looked down at the ground. "What did they do to you?"

Clary's head snapped up at his question, and said in monotone, "Nothing I would want to happen to you." She then turned back to a still smiling Simon who had wandered closer to the exit doors before Jace's hand grabbed her arm.

"What did they do, Clary?" His voice had taken on a rough angry tone and his jaw had tightened, showing Clary how hard it was for him to swallow his anger.

She jerked out of his grasp and spat, "None of your damn business, Herondale." Her tone almost made him flinch. He had never heard her speak so bitterly. He decided it was better not to anger her any more and matched her and Simon's quick paces instead.

"I just want to understand. You can trust me."

"Yeah." She scoffed. "That's what they all say." Jace's fists tightened so much his nails dug into his palms. It was ok though, the pain kept his mind clearer and stopped him from shouting at her. _Why can't she just believe me?_ He was getting quite frustrated, he only wanted to know if the people here had hurt her. Surely not, right? They were here to help them. Make them safer. They wouldn't, _couldn't,_ hurt anyone.. Right?

"I'm not going to hurt you, Clary."

"I didn't think he would either." Clary's admission came out blank and emotionless,-as though she had no feelings in her body, as if she was numb from the words she spoke. But her words didn't get lost on Jace. He had frozen in his pursue. Had he heard her correctly? _He?_ Somebody _here_ had hurt her? The people here had _hurt_ her? They had hurt _her?_ Sweet, innocent Clary Morgenstern? Ruler of the school Clary Morgenstern? Surely not. But..she wouldn't lie. And if they could do that to _her_ , he didn't even want to think of what they would do to _him!_ He shuddered at the unwanted memories of beating hands and bloody knuckles, and tried to shake off his memories.

Jace's face displayed all his conflicted emotions. Sad. Pity. Confusion. But most of all anger. Anger at this school for hurting her. Anger at his adoptive parent for sending him here. Anger at Clary for not fighting back. Anger at this whole world for being so messed up. But he was mostly angry at himself. For just standing in the hallway watching her and Simon's retreating figures getting themselves in more trouble, and just turning away to protect himself.


	17. Chapter 17

**Hi guys, sorry it's been a mega long while, but sometimes life just gets in the way doesn't it? Or more like uni assignments and actually trying to work for some extra money. Anyways, I'm uploading this chapter now, so I hope it was worth the wait..kind of. So thanks for anyone who is still interested and haven't lost hope. Enjoy, let me know what you think. Thanks.**

When Jace arrived to the block where the counselling sessions were being held, his face became pale. Around him he saw a mix of students lounging around on chairs, like a wave of emotions going from cloud nine to cloud..minus nine. There was Sebastian and Jonathan trying to aim paper balls into the bin with smiles on their faces, roaring with laughter when Sebastian accidentally hit the teacher and got moved to the opposite side of the room. Not that that stopped them though, they just carried on trying to throw paper aeroplanes at each other,-something they were both pretty rubbish at.

Across the room, featuring in the 'cloud minis nine' people, were Kaelie and..

" _Izzy?"_ Her tear stained face peered from behind her hands showing puffy and bloodshot eyes. It actually broke Jace's heart a bit to see his practically sister this way. She leapt from her seat and into his arms in seconds, crying into his shoulder as he hugged her tightly.

"They know, Jace. I don't know how, but they do. They know everything. I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry." She sobbed into his -now wet- t shirt. He nodded. He kind of figured that out after the twins had spoke to him. It seems his adoptive parents have a few issues when it comes to supporting their kids.

"I know, Iz. And it's going to be ok you hear me? You're going to get better, we are all going to be ok." He smiled weakly at her and rubbed her shoulders soothingly. She attempted a smile back but looked more like a grimace, but Jace appreciated the effort.

"You KNEW about her? And you didn't tell me? Both of you decided to keep me in the dark about this? Thanks guys, it's nice to know you both trust me so much." Alec's bitter voice cut through Jace and Isabelle's moment and hung in the air like a bad stench. He was glaring at the pair and betrayal shone in his eyes.

"Alec, you know we trust you. But Izzy just-she was getting better. There was no reason to scare you, I was helping her."

"And you think I wouldn't have helped her, Jace? I'm her brother not you!" Alec regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. His mouth formed an 'o' shape and he immediately started spilling apologies. But Jace cut him off with a stormy expression.

"You're right, you are her brother. But it says something when she can trust me more than her own blood, right? Not that that says anything, your parents shipped us off to this school to get rid of us, so trust isn't really on the Lightwood résumé, is it?" Jace's angry reply came out fast and hurtful. His reflex to getting hurt was to shut his emotions off and hurt whoever hurt him even more. Later he would definitely regret his words but for now he was seeing red.

Isabelle probably wouldn't have even told Jace if he hadn't walked in on her spewing her guts up in the toilet one night. It was pure coincidence that Jace had gone into her room looking for some headphones to steal for his run and happened to witness the whole episode. Of course he had stopped her and she had broken down crying saying she couldn't stop and that she felt fat. There had been an ex boyfriend of hers that had broken up with her because she was 'too big' and that's when it had started. Jace felt awful for not noticing her slightly skinnier frame and he thought he could notice the outline of a few of her ribs vaguely, and cursed himself for not noticing sooner. He had calmed her down and reassured her that she didn't need to lose any weight, in fact she probably could afford to gain some, and he promised her that her waste-of-space ex boyfriend had no brain and the next day would have no face. Jace did keep his promise and her sleaze of an ex walked into school the following week with a crooked nose, busted up lip and two black eyes.

"Jonathan Herondale? It's time for your session." A nasally female voice broke Jace out of his thoughts. He stormed towards the open door, almost knocking over the blubbering girl coming out of it, ignoring Izzy's shouts of protest and slamming the door shut behind him.

After the Lightwoods and Jace's little episode, the atmosphere in the room was suddenly sullen. The bell for third period had just rang and people had started to dwindle out of the room. All except the Lightwood twins, who were waiting for Jace and talking in harsh whispers, and Sebastian and Jonathan-who were starting to worry about Clary and Simon's absence. She knows better than to be late to one of these. _Where was she?_

"Hey Seb, can you see Clary or Simon down the hall? They should be here by now."

Sebastian peered around the hallway and shook his head. "Nope. But don't worry, they are probably off reading manga somewhere like the nerds they are and forgot about the time. They'll be here, chill. She knows better." His voice took on a more serious note towards the end. But Jonathan still took out his phone to call Clary, even if she was reading manga she still needed to be told to get her ass there pronto.

"She's not answering." His phone call went straight to voicemail. "She always answers. Something's wrong." He hurried towards the door, and ordered Sebastian to check all the toilets on the left side of the school before sprinting towards the nearest toilet himself.

He was expecting the worst. He continued to phone her, but her phone kept going straight to voicemail. "Come on, Clary. Pick up. Pick up. Pick u-CLARY?!" She finally answered on his eighth phone call when he had just burst into the fourth girls toilet -and had his fourth encounter with angry girls shouting profanities at him. "Clary, where the hell are you?!"

"Jonathan calm down. Look, I'm not going to make my session, can you cover for me? I need an hour. Something happened with Simon, and I'm..look just give me an hour, ok?" She sighed at the end of the phone. Jonathan was pacing, going bat crazy.

"CALM DOWN? Clary you can't tell me to calm down, you _need_ to get your little butt here right now." He seethed through the phone, trying to portray how serious this was for them.

"Hey! My butt is the correct size for my height..which is quite short so I guess I kind of do have a small butt. Still, not funny though, Jon." Clary tried to change the subject, and at least get him to crack a smile, maybe even a giggle. But she had no such luck.

"Clary, this isn't a joke. So stop treating it like one." He sighed, "Look I know Simon is your friend and you want to help him but..you need to think about yourself. You can't afford to miss this, not again. Where are you? I'll come and take care of Simon so you can come back. Just tell me where you are."

"Jon, I'm fine. We both are. I won't get back in time for mine anyway so, don't worry I'll call you later. Love you, gotta go." And she hung up. Jon was furious. He started pacing and pulling at his hair with worry, and that's how Sebastian found him twenty minutes later.

"Jon, dude, JON! Where is she? Is she ok? Jonathan!" Sebastian clasped Jonathan's shoulders between his hands and gave him a shake and a pointed look.

"Um-uh-yeah she's ok. With Simon. She felt sick so he took her out for some air. Nothing to worry about. Come on, let's go shoot some hoops, my adrenaline is pumping." He plastered a calm facade and smiled confidently at Seb. It seems that both the Morgenstern twins are pretty good at pretending they are ok.

Meanwhile, Clary wasn't in the best position. Her and Simon had drifted towards their old 'party hangout' and she was waiting for Simon to come down, it shouldn't be too long since he hadn't had that much-although it was his first relapse in months so who knew what effect it would have? Simon had found a stash of vodka and had insisted they open it, but Clary had been wise and snatched it back off him and placed it aside.

"God Clary, you're so boring today. Come on, remember how much fun we had? We may as well. We've missed our "counsel session" -not that they will help anyway. Nobody cares. Nobody cares about some messed up teenagers so why shouldn't we do this? Why shouldn't we get drunk and forget for a while?" He turned to her with wide grin and arms outstretched, begging her to join him. "What's stopping you, Clary? Don't you want to forget for a while? It's just you and me. No one will know."

He picks up the bottle again and offers her it with a teasing smile. "Just one, come on Fray. You want it. You can't lie to me. I can see it in your eyes." Clary took the bottle from him and took a bitter swig, screwing her face up at the horrid taste. _Hm. He was right. Maybe I should forget for a few hours. No one would miss me anyway._ She took another gulp, and her and Simon began to fade away from the world.

"Jon is everything alright? You've missed every basket. And I thought you were second best in the school!-you know, after me, obviously." Sebastian smirked which usually egged Jonathan into some banter, especially if sports were involved. But Jon didn't even twitch his lips. To be honest, I don't think he even noticed Sebastian was with him. Well until Seb threw a basketball to his head, _hard._

"Dude, what the _hell?!_ "

"Well you weren't paying attention. Look, is everything ok? You've seemed out of it since after counselling. You said your session went good? No problems, right?" Sebastian turned concerned but Jon smiled reassuringly.

"Yeah, it was good. I haven't had an attack in two years so not much to report really. You know, just their usual bullshit. How was yours, good?"

Sebastian frowned. They'd already had this conversation earlier. "Yes, I told you earlier, nothing for months. My heads all clean for now." He smiled weakly and sighed. "Seriously Jon, what's up?"

"It's nothing. Just Clary. She still hasn't come back and it's been almost an hour. Has she text you? Or Simon? Maybe I should go look." Jonathan was mostly mumbling to himself but Seb was picking up on snippets of his thoughts.

"Come on, we'll go find her. We have lunch now, and they can't have gone too far because neither of them brought a car today." Jonathan nodded and they both scurried out of the sports gym.

Too bad their adventure was put on hold when they ran into Jace. He looked sweaty as if he had been running and was panting to catch his breath. Jonathan and Sebastian both gripped his shoulders to steady him asking if he was alright.

"I've been looking." Breath. "for you" Breath. "everywhere." He stood up straighter and re-told his earlier encounter with Clary and Simon,-leaving out the personal bits.

By the end of his story Sebastian's face had gone sheet white and Jonathan was cursing Simon for being so stupid and asking how he could bring Clary into his shit again. Jonathan began sprinting down the hallway towards the exit with Seb and Jace following shortly behind him.

If Jace's conversation prolonged their mission then the Lightwoods stalking about in the car park was definitely going to waste time. Instead of asking why the twins faces looked like someone had run over their puppy Jace shouted that they would speak later, but like hell was Isabelle Lightwood giving up that easily. She stomped over to the three sprinting boys and followed them to the opposite direction of the car pack..towards the woods.

"Jace, what's going on?" She kept up surprisingly well considering she was wearing seven inch boots. Nothing stops Isabelle Lightwood.

"Not sure. I seen Clary and Simon earlier and when I told Jon he flipped. I'm guessing it's nothing good. Come on we need to catch up." Jace didn't seem to be angry at any of the twins and his face was covered with guilt and concern. Jace didn't know when he developed these caring feeling towards the redhead but he figured that they were nothing special. It's not as if he _liked_ her or anything. Don't be ridiculous, he hardly even _knew_ her. No, he absolutely did not have a crush on the girl who nobody seems to be able to figure out. No, it was just friendly concern. Or so he told himself as he pushed his legs to go faster to catch up with her brother and her.. _boyfriend._ He grimaced at the thought before feeling mortified and ignoring the twist in his stomach.

Jace and the Lightwoods obviously had no idea where they were going but Jon and Sebastian sure had a determined look and a clear route of where they were leading them. All of a sudden after ten minutes of fast sprinting, a large wooden house came into view. A _treehouse?_ Jace thought it actually looked pretty cool. Except for the fact that Simon and Clary were half naked and dancing to imaginary music-well if you didn't count the random notes coming from the pair's mouth-which Jace didn't.

It took seconds for Jonathan to sprint into action and shout for Clary to let down the ladder so he could climb up. Her little head popped over the top and she giggled in delight at seeing her brother.

"Jonathan!"

"Yes, Clary it's me. Now can you drop the ladder down so I can come up with you? I think it's time to go." His voice was calmly controlled, he knew if he exploded he would scare her and she could do anything in her drunken state.

"If I let you up, you are going to shout. So, sorry but I can't. Two's a party but three is a crowd, Jonny." She giggled at her very _un_ funny joke and continued to prance around with Simon. Jonathan growled.

"Clarrisa." She popped her head over again and looked at Jon's furious face and tilted her head with an adorable frown on her face.

"You sound like daddy." She giggled again, and that's when she saw the rest of Jon's party and gasped. "Jon! You didn't say you brought friends! Now we can have a real party." She then leaned down further so she was practically dangling from the entrance and was barely holding on by her unsteady hand. Everyone's heart started to pound because of her dangerous position. She whispered now, as though she was telling them a secret, "We might need more drink though, Simon's drunk all our bottles." She swung herself back inside and you could hear her and Simon's hysterical laughter echo through the opening.

"Shit, we need to get up there. Any ideas, guys?" Jon looked at each of his gather ensemble individually and sighed at the little hope.

"Clary? Clary, it's Isabelle!" Clary's red hair cascaded over the side of the treehouse once again with a mischievous smirk. "Hey Clary, could you get Simon for me? I need to speak to him." Clary's face broke out into a wider grin and she nodded eagerly, motioning for her to wait one second.

Jace hissed in her ear, "What are you doing, Iz?"

"Helping. What does it look like?" She snapped back. Simon's glasses ridden face appeared where Clary was a few seconds ago. "Simon! You look like you're having fun. Do you think there is any room for one more?" Isabelle gave Simon her most flirtatious smile-but considering he didn't have his glasses on, it was kind of in vain. But none the less Simon grinned like a little boy on Christmas.

"Of course, come up! There's always room for you, Iz."

"Uh-you'll have to throw the ladder down. I'm not a tree climber, Simon." She laughed easily and hoped that he would do what she says. He did.

"Of course. Sorry, hang on!" His cheeks went slightly pink and he face planted jokingly. There was rustling and then a feeble rope ladder was thrown out of the 'entrance' of the house. Jon's stopped short at the bottom of the ladder and turned to the group.

"Someone will have to climb up there so I can be down here to catch her. There's no way she will be able to climb down that ladder on her own." Before Sebastian -or even Alec- could volunteer Jace had leaped towards the ladder and was already half way up there when he heard Izzy snort at his unsubtle eagerness.

When he reached the top he saw Clary and Simon topless dancing with an almost empty vodka bottle, and another two empty ones littered around the floor. The make-shift walls were covered in paintings, sketches, photos, wrappers, train tickets, everything. It looked like a memory wall, and some didn't look like they were any fun to remember. He was snapped out of his investigation by a disappointed voice.

"You're not, Isabelle." Simon's lip pouted and Clary found it hilarious.

"Of course not, Simon! It's Jace! Jace, what are you doing here?" She questioned with delight, and then whispered again, "did you come for the party?" Her face was one hundred percent serious and Jace couldn't help but smile at how cute she was. He decided to play along.

"Yeah, but the party is over now, Clary. It's time to go home. Come on." He gently grabbed her arm and tried to steer her towards him, but she spun out of his grasp and simply shrugged.

"If you don't want to party then you should go. I don't want to go home yet. I don't want to remember yet. Just a bit longer. Please." She then took a long swig of the vodka bottle and not flinching at the taste anymore but relishing the burning in her throat compared to the numbness of her whole body. Her mind was foggy and dizzy and she was genuinely happy about it. "Si, we are almost out. Is there anymore?"

Simon's shook his head, but complained that there was only one more bottle left. Clary pouted and continued to dance around to her own made up melody. If she drank anymore, her liver was going to give out. Jace was having that exact thought when he decided to 'join the party'.

The closer Jace got to Clary the more foolish he felt. How hadn't he noticed the scars coating her stomach and arms from a far? Scars lined all her arms, jagged, deep scars starting across her wrists. Thankfully he couldn't see any that looked fresh or recent but it still made his stomach turn. Her stomach was very much the same. Uneven tears in her skin lining over half her stomach, including the words 'FAT' and 'PATHETIC' engraved messily. _So this is her secret._ Jace only then realised just how wasted Clary must be to forget that her scars would be on show if she was topless. The harsh marks stood out against her pasty skin.

Clary grabbed his arm and attempted to twirl him under her arm, which was difficult considering he was almost a foot taller than her. But that didn't stop her.

"Clary, I think you've had enough today. Why don't we go home? Come and see Jon, he wants to see you."

"No Jace! I'll see him later, and you can tell him I'm not going to top myself tonight so he can stop worrying. I'm forgetting everything for a while. I needed to feel something. And this was it." She opened her arms, embracing the situation.

"There's other ways of making you feel something, Clary." They had grown closer to each other automatically. Was Jace suggesting that _he_ could make her feel something? Clary questioned.

"What? You think a kiss is going to make me feel something good? Ha. Tried it. Kind of makes it worse."

Jace's voice became more throaty, he didn't care that Simon was a few centre meters away from them. "Not if its with the right person."

"And who is that, Jace? No one. So what's the point. Me and Sebastian were kidding ourselves. He sees me as a sister and I see him as an another annoyingly over protective brother who thinks I need watching every second of the day! I'm sick of it! I don't want to go back to being whoever I need to be in reality. Please just let me have a bit more time." Clary pleaded with Jace, her green eyes were wide and irresistible. Although, it just left more questions without answers for Jace.

"Clary, I can't. It's time to go. Everyone is worried-

"Everyone's always worried." Clary interrupted bitterly, added by an extra shot of drink. Jace's face hardened and decided he had to take action. He snatched the bottle out of her hand and ignored the shouts of protest from her.

"I can make you feel something." He gathered her cheeks in his hands and pressed his lips to hers. The heat emitted from both of their lips and sent tingles through their bodies. The feeling scared Clary. She was too shocked to kiss him back, which she was thankful for because if she had kissed him back-which she wanted to-it would have probably given away the weird emotions she was feeling inside her. The scary ones. The ones she didn't want because they would only lead to her getting hurt in the end. Nothing could come of these 'feelings' and so she decided to crush them along with her own already empty heart. And that was to act as if she felt nothing. She told herself that he didn't actually like her anyway, he was just pitying her, as if anyone could actually like _her._ Messed up little Clary Morgenstern. And even if he did care about her, even a little bit, she would only hurt him in the end and she didn't want that. Yes, it was definitely better to hurt him now before it lead to anything else. It would just be painful for the both of them if anything were to happen. And that's what she told herself when Jace stopped kissing her.

He looked towards her with a new found energy in his eyes, only to find her with empty eyes and a blank face. He had definitely not expected that. Had she not felt what he had? Jace's hopes were smashed even further when she gave him a conceded smirk.

"Thanks for that, Jace. But you think you kissing me is anything more than this..?" She strutted over to Simon, wrapped her arm around his neck and crushed their lips together. Clary and Simon had kissed a few times before. When they used to come to the treehouse they would often share a few kisses between friends, usually just to try and feel something, so they were quite familiar with the others lips. Jace could see their kiss was much more passionate than the one he had just shared with her -for starters both parties were actually participating. Both of their tongues were desperate to win dominance from the battle of their lips.

Jace looked away and tightened his fist to keep from ripping them apart and rearranging Simon's mouth so he could never kiss her like that again. If Jace had carried on watching the two kissing he would have noticed just how much they were _not_ enjoying the kiss. I mean, the kiss itself was good, they both perfected that art, but they had no feelings towards each other and so it lacked emotion, it lacked..everything really. But they carried on their little show because that's what Clary was prone to do. Pretend.


End file.
